JOIN USAbandoned sisters on road to recovery
Hema,8, and Rekha,3, (names changed) are now fit to be discharged from hospital. But doctors and nurses are unwilling to let them go.
The staff at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital has decided to keep the sisters there till they find foster parents or a dependable children’s home for them.
The girls, starving and abandoned by their parents, were found locked up in a room at their home in Samaypuri Badli on August 18.
“A childless couple who wanted to adopt them has also requested us to take things forward,” said Dr Sushant Gupta, who is treating them.
A constable, Ashok Kumar, has been deployed to be around the sisters at all times in the hospital. Another constable, Manju, joined Kumar on Friday.
“The sisters play with everyone in the ward,” said Kumar.
Kumar said they love Kurkure chips and when they are awake they run around and talk to everyone. “They don’t show any signs of being in pain. But when reporters ask them about their parents they become quiet,” he said.
The hospital barber, Iqbal Ahmed, who was assigned to shave off Hema’s head before her surgery, said he was pained at the sight.
Using a razor on the vulnerable skin of her scalp made him twitch, he said. “There was so much puss, I couldn’t see her hair in its midst.”
Dr Gupta said he has never come across a situation like this, where parents have left their children in such a condition, during the 23 years of his practice.
When the girls were brought to him, the three-year-old was so weak that she kept on sleeping. The elder one had clusters of black maggots eating out the puss on her scalp. “She kept on scratching her head,” said Dr Gupta.
The sisters used to go out to play regularly with other children in their neighbourhood until August 15, when their father locked them up in a room.
“We used to play pakaddan-pakkadai,” said Prince, a seven-year-old boy from the neighbourhood.
He said Hema used to come out to play even when her infection and maggots were visible.
The two kids were found three days after their father locked them up in the room. They were starving and clasping each other’s hand, lying on a cot.
Hema’s head, and the cot, were infested with maggots, some of which were also getting on to Rekha, said police.
The two are the “unwanted daughters” of Bunty and Jyoti, said landlord Nand Kishore.
People in the cramped up neighbourhood, Nepali Colony in Outer Delhi’s Samay Pur Badli, were aghast when they saw the girls being escorted to the hospital.
“People called out swear words at the parents. Some held on to their children,” said Kishore.
The two children were not crying, just staring, said Kishore, who took them to hospital. “The children used to come to my shop to have chips,” he said.
“Bunty would drink every night and fight with his wife,” said Kishore.
All other children in the neighbourhood went to school, but the sisters didn’t, he said.
Bunty made visits to the house regularly in those three days but kept the girls locked in another room, said Kishore.