Baby 'mix-up' blot on shelter

Farmer Budu Kandir with his daughter Sarita (right) and Mangra at a Ranchi hospital on Saturday. (Prashant Mitra)

Ranchi: For a month-and-a-half, a Khunti farmer is chasing authorities to get back his 18-month-old son who went missing after 22 babies were shifted from a Missionaries of Charity-run shelter in the wake of a baby-sale-for-adoption controversy that rocked the state capital in July.

After the adoption racket came to light at Ranchi's Nirmal Hriday, the state child welfare committee ordered the shifting of all babies from Shishu Bhavan. Of 22 babies there, 12 were shifted to Khunti's Sahyog Village, a child care shelter run by an NGO.

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At Sahyog Village, when babies started falling ill and one died, eight were handed back to parents on July 14, but their treatment continued to be jointly monitored by Ranchi and Khunti child welfare committees.

Among these eight babies, were Khunti farmer Budu Kandir's twins, Sagar and Sarita. Only, Kandir claims he got Sarita but not Sagar. Instead, another baby boy of the same age, Mangra Nag, was handed to him though he said it was the wrong baby, he claimed to this paper.

Kandir also claimed that social workers whom he contacted for help agreed with him that there was a mix-up.

"The social workers have read documents that are not possible for me to understand. As per records, Mangra was admitted at Shishu Bhavan on January 20 last year when he was two months old. Resident of Jombro in Saraikela-Kharsawan Budhu Nag is mentioned as the father," said Kandir, who two days ago approached the chairperson of Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Arti Kujur to get his son back.

Asked if the first-name similarity between Budu Nag and Budhu Kandir caused the confusion, Kandir said he did not know.

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