In search of the lost children Families of the kids, who went missing from hospitals, live in the hope that they will return

In search of the lost children

Families of the kids, who went missing from hospitals, live in the hope that they will return

For the last ten years, Prakash Chauhan, 32, and his wife Vidya, 29, have celebrated the birthday of their child on January 12. But their child is not present, for the couple lost their baby boy two days after he was born, at JJ Hospital in 2003. The child went missing from the maternity ward and though a police complaint was filed, nothing came of it. The couple, who live in Dongri with their two children, remain hopeful that one day, their child will return home. Four years ago, Mohini Nerurkar’s three-day-old baby was stolen from Sion Hospital. The Nerurkars are still fighting with the hospital administration in the hope of being reunited with their child. This week, Jasmin Naik’s day-old boy was kidnapped from the Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital. “When your child is kidnapped, you always hope that maybe your child is alive and will return home. On this hope, the family passes its days,” says Vidya, who works as a computer operator in a private firm. “You can’t concentrate on work or anything else, because your thoughts are always on your child. Where is he? What is he doing? Is he safe or not?” Vidya hopes that the government implements rules and regulations for maternity wards which would be implemented strictly. “Most baby kidnappings happen in government-run and civic-run hospitals,” she says. “They should implement rules such as compulsory 24-hour security outside the ward, and only allowing relatives inside the ward.” Dr Yusuf Matheswala, a senior psychiatrist at Masina Hospital says that a family in such a situation would be in urgent need of counselling and psychological therapy. “When there is a death, after a period of time the family returns to its usual routines. But in such a situation, when the baby has been stolen, the mother is unable to accept reality, and continue to hope that the child will return. Their lives are completely disturbed.” Prakash and Vidya had their second child two years after their first-born was taken from them. Despite their past experiences, Vidya insisted on delivering her second child at JJ Hospital. Their son Jitesh is now in the third standard, and his parents watch over him anxiously. “Our first son, Aditya, would have been ten in January,” says Prakash. “We don’t know where he is, but we pray that god will take care of our child.” Prakash is unable to understand how such incidents happen repeatedly. “Why don’t the state and the BMC take strong security measures? If the authorities had taken strict action in our case, maybe another child would not have been stolen.”