THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Yet another teenage abuse victim impregnated by her own father, and protected in the Palakkad Nirbhaya Home, has refused to feed her newborn. The 17-year-old mother, who delivered a girl on Saturday, has objected to even bringing the child near her.
Two months ago, another teenage girl raped by her father had refused to feed her child, and the child had to be immediately “surrendered” (officialese for shifting the newborn to a fondling home). The father had committed suicide. In the latest case, the father is in jail.
The Palakkad Child Welfare Committee, caught between the rights of the newborn and the rape victim, wants the teenage mother to feed the newborn, at least for the time she is in the hospital. “It is important for the newborn to have the mother near in the first few days,” said Fr Dr Jose Paul, the chairperson of Palakkad CWC.
“I have been told that the mother is unwilling to see or feed the child fearing that she might get attached to the child,” he said.
This year, at least 10 teenage victims lodged in various Nirbhaya homes in the state, most of them raped by close relatives, have refused to feed their newborns.
In two cases, the victims were forced to feed the children. Soon the children had to be “surrendered” after the breastfeeding mothers went through intense emotional agony.
“Such cases should not be approached in a moralistic conventional sense. We have to come to terms with the fact that these victims are even repelled by the child they have given birth to. It is understandable considering the strange things they have gone through,” said P. Usha who heads the Mahila Samakhya Society that runs eight Nirbhaya homes in various parts of the state.
