238 Delhi newborns abandoned ,abused ,strangles and left to die in selective foeticide on the roads in south Delhi
New Delhi August 19: Newborns struck on head by blunt force, some smothered, some strangled and then left to die on the road. These revelations have come after an AIIMS study of 17-year autopsy records from South Delhi area.The study reveals that of 70 abandoned newborns between 1996 and 2012, 54 were murdered.
While 45 of them had suffered injury on the head by a blunt force, five were smothered, three strangulated and one had the throat slit. Other causes of death were natural or accidental in nature. Pneumonia, congenital diseases or hypothermia and accidental suffocation were the leading causes for the same, the study said.
Among the 238 abandoned foetuses, 115 (48 per cent) were boys and 110 (46 per cent) were girls. The gender of the foetus could not be ascertained in 13 cases either due to early gestational age or due to the advanced stage of decomposition, the study said.
This is the first study from India to discuss all forensically-known cases of abandoned foetuses and newborns over 17 years from the region of south Delhi, claims the study published in the latest issue of Medico-Legal Journal of the UK.
It revealed that discarded foetus or a post-natal victim was mainly abandoned on the roadside or blind lanes, followed by rivers and drains.
“Bodies were also recovered from dustbins, parks, jungles, railway stations, bus stands, religious places,
schools and hospitals. The place of recovery could not be ascertained in 24 cases,” it said.
“Abandoned foetuses and newborns constituted about one per cent of the total autopsies conducted during the 17-year period,” the AIIMS study said.
Dr C Behera, one of the co-authors of the study, said that this is possibly the “first-of-its-kind study and though there have always been news reports from different parts of the country regarding recovery of abandoned foetuses and newborns, to our knowledge, statistical data on the subject are scarce.”
A previous report, published in 2008, from south Delhi highlighted the sudden increase in the number of sex selective abortions after antenatal sex determination became freely available in India.
“We studied and analysed the records of all the medico-legal autopsies conducted at the AIIMS from 1996 to 2012 for foetuses and newborns. The details of these cases were sourced from the autopsy records and the inquest papers of the investigating officer,” Mr Behera said.
The data were analysed for yearly distribution, gender, gestational age, viability at birth, cause and manner of deaths in live-born babies, and location of recovery of the bodies.
“We are thinking of conducting a study for data available from 2013 onwards on the same subject. During our previous study, the jurisdiction area involved only south Delhi but now it also includes south-east Delhi,” he said.
“For central Delhi, the cases go to Maulana Azad Medical College, for north Delhi Lady Hardinge Medical College and for south-west, either Safdarjung Hospital or DDU Hospital. The cases of abandoning of foetuses and newborns in these areas have not been studied,” he said.
