Putul Barman with her son (faces blurred). Picture by Mithun Roy

Balurghat, Aug. 1: An impoverished woman but not on the BPL list has been accused of selling her month-old son for Rs 30,000.

Although the baby was tracked down and returned to the mother, the incident brought to focus the plight of those who have been deprived of government benefits under schemes meant for the BPL.

In a similar incident that shook the Malda administration last month, a widowed tribal woman, Myno Baske, was searching for buyers for her children in one of the poorest villages in the district.

Both Putul Barman of the Raghunathpur forest area of Balurghat, and Myno, have voter IDs but not BPL cards, the absence of which would deprive them of benefits once more when the Centre passes the food security law for the “really poor”. The central benefit is unlikely to reach those not on the BPL list.

Yesterday, on the request of the local people, state social welfare minister Biswanath Chowdhury saw to it that the child was returned to Putul. However, the mother is still doubtful about how she will feed her children. Her eldest is a daughter aged nine.

“My husband Sukanta is a carpenter, but he is too ill to work,” said Putul, a mother of four. She, however, denied having “sold” her son. “I gave the couple the child to bring him up. They would have at least fed him,” she said. Sukanta has gone to his brother in Bangladesh with the couple’s two children, a daughter aged 9, and a seven-year-old son. Putul stays alone here with her other three-year-old daughter and the month-old son.

The secretary of the citizens’ forum or the Nagarik Mancha, Arijit Mahanta, however, alleged that the baby had been “sold” to Paban Barman, who had promised her Rs 30,000. “Last evening we recovered the child from Paban’s house in Tior,” he said.

Balurghat municipality chairperson Sucheta Biswas admitted the Barmans had voter cards, but were not on the BPL list. “I am making enquiries to find out how they got omitted.” The minister said he had asked the social welfare department to find out the circumstances under which the child had been sold. “I have told the municipality to stand by the family.”