Panju (28) from Sandhaipettai, near Melur on the outskirts of Madurai, walked out of the maternity ward to the visitors section and offered her baby for sale. But there were no takers. A crowd of curious onlookers instead jeered at her until the police came to her rescue and got her re-admitted to hospital, reports quoting eye-witnesses said.
After local papers reported her plight, an NGO working for HIV positive persons, admitted her in a private hospital on Saturday.
Panju, who lost her husband Udhayakumar to AIDS seven months ago, was found to have been infected when she went to the Government hospital for delivery. Doctors gave the baby, born ten days ago, an anti-retroviral drug but said it would take six weeks to find out whether the baby was infected as well.
Panju, a construction worker, had lost two babies in earlier deliveries. When contacted, a sobbing Panju said, “I wanted to give away the baby as my days are numbered. Moreover, I am poor and I have no relatives to fall back upon.”
Hospital resident medical officer Mathivanan denied that she was not properly looked after or that she was harassed by ward boys. He refused to take any more questions.
Mr S Anbalagan, president of the Madurai District HIV Positive People’s Welfare Society, told Deccan Herald that Panju’s co-workers who got her admitted to hospital abandoned her after coming to know she had contracted the disease. He said the Government Rajaji Hospital was the only one which treated HIV positive patients, but it had a separate ward for them. It was this which gave away Panju’s status to everyone.
He said that his organisation had got her admitted to Punitha Annal Hospital, on the outskirts of Madurai. “We have fed her and given her counselling and her morale is better now,” he said and added that she might keep the baby, if given support by the network of HIV positive people.
He regretted that Panju did not receieve any social welfare benefits from the Tamil Nadu government for people below the poverty line, such as Rs 10,000 for funeral expenses plus monthly pension of Rs 400 when they lose their sole breadwinner and Rs 6,000 to pregnant women.
