The government and civil society need to join hands to fight this.
ISLAMABAD: According to a news report in your paper, veritable gangs are active in kidnapping newborn babies from different hospitals and nursing homes in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. On March 21, a couple tried to kidnap a five-month-old baby from the Benazir Hospital in Rawalpindi. Fortunately, the baby’s father was able to stop the couple before they were able to get away with the child. Similarly, a doctor who was running a medical centre in Islamabad, was caught red-handed while trying to hand over a baby to a childless couple for Rs45,000. Both these incidents show that in this country, money will get you just about anything.
I believe that in order to control this menace, certain steps need to be taken by parents, as well as the government. Parents should never leave their babies alone at any time while in hospital. They must, at all times, escort the medical staff in the presence of the baby, as in many cases hospital employees have been found complicit in the kidnappings. It has been found that kidnapping babies of poor couples is easier as they find it difficult to invoke the law against the kidnappers. The government and civil society need to join hands to fight this, especially since most of those who suffer belong to the relatively poorer segments of society.
Iftikhar Mirza
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2012.
