Deserted woman forced to deliver at bus stand
Of giving birth in a bus stop, K. Selvi can only remember in bits and pieces- a lot of pain, a woman she knew in the slum helping her, passers-by drifting to and fro, buses entering and leaving the depot and finally a baby boy.
Selvi, 25 hailing from Tirupur, moved to Chennai with her husband last year. Married for five years, the couple had two girls-Maheswari, 4, and Jothi, who is one and a half years old. “Four months ago, my husband left me. Earlier, I thought he had gone away for work.
But did not come back,” Selvi said. Six months after pregnancy, Selvi lost her home in the slum as she could not pay the rent. She lived on the pavements and finally gave birth at the Tiruverkadu bus stop. “Some people at the bus stop took me in an auto to a hospital and I was brought back after a few hours,” she said.
According to Vidyaakar, social worker at Udavum Karangal, the organization that took her in, she was taken to the Kilpauk Medical Hospital (KMC) where she was discharged after a few hours. “She was really in a bad shape. She has lost blood and her feet were completely swollen, “he said. He said the baby was taken to the Apollo Hospital, where he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Selvi and her children are still at Udavum Karangal, where she hopes to get a job working with children. Officials at the KMC said even if a woman who had given birth outside was brought in, she would be admitted and kept for a few days after which her baby would be vaccinated. “We would have kept her in post-natal ward and treated her, “a senior official said.
