From two moms to none: Why 4-month-old HIV+ Mumbai baby is nobody's child

NAVI MUMBAI: A four-month-old baby girl has become nobody's child after a Hindu woman delivered her at

KEM Hospital

by fraudulently using the Aadhaar card of a Muslim woman who wanted to adopt the baby without going through the long, legal adoption procedure.
The Muslim woman wanted to have another child for herself following a miscarriage during her second pregnancy, and the Hindu woman, who was pregnant, did not want the child as she said her husband was a drug addict. So they struck a deal.
On getting a firm assurance from the Muslim woman that she would adopt the child, the Hindu woman delivered the baby using the Muslim woman's Aadhaar card. However, the baby is now ill and was in January detected as HIV positive at Wadia Hospital, so the Muslim woman doesn't want her anymore.
While the baby has currently been admitted to a hospital in Kalwa, the state's

women and child welfare

department has lodged a zero FIR against both women for giving up or accepting and selling or buying a child illegally under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and for cheating with common intention under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Police said the mother of the baby girl and the Muslim woman live in the same neighbourhood in Kalyan. It was six months into her pregnancy that the woman told the Muslim woman that she did not want to have the child, which was when the Muslim woman offered to adopt the child. Using the Muslim woman's identity card, the Hindu woman delivered the baby in October 2024 at KEM Hospital. A birth certificate was issued bearing the name of a Muslim girl and mentioning the Muslim woman as her mother.
Five days after discharge from hospital, the Muslim woman took the child home. The baby underwent an appendicitis surgery at Wadia Hospital in Jan this year, where she was detected as being HIV positive. Following this, the Muslim woman was taken for HIV tests. Having learnt of the baby's HIV infection, though, the Muslim woman disowned the baby and revealed the details of how she had got her to the hospital staffers, who alerted the local Sakhi centre of the women and child welfare department in Mumbai.
Thereafter, on February 21, an email was sent by the local Sakhi centre giving details about the case to the

Thane district child protection

helpline.
The child protection committee staffers could not trace the Muslim woman but succeeded in obtaining the cell number of the woman who gave birth to her. Accordingly, a zero FIR was filed with Manpada police station in Thane on Feb 28. The case has been transferred to Bhoiwada PS in Mumbai for further investigation.
An officer of Thane district child protection committee said, "People should follow adoption rules, and adoption complexities also need to be relaxed through the intervention of the women and child welfare department. This case raises questions about the identity checks of pregnant women who get admitted to govt-run premier hospitals for delivery."
Activists have long been demanding inquiries into such illegal adoptions which may be happening in hospitals, maternity homes, and clinics.