NEW DELHI: Not too long after a baby-swapping case resulted in a fight over a baby boy, a High court in the Indian state of Orissa has ‘suggested' that deliveries in labor rooms should be video graphed and forensic tests should be done immediately after birth to avoid baby swap claims. This dilemma was flustered with a case in which a mother has rejected a baby girl as her daughter, based on a claim by the mother-in law that she had seen her delivering a baby boy. Afterwards, the court had appointed an advocate committee, which visited the SCB Medical College Hospital, where the incident took place. The committee, which gave the suggestion to the High Court, advised the hospital authorities to video record all deliveries in the labor room henceforth, along with statements of the mothers. “We have also advised the hospital authorities to send the footprints of the infants for forensic test and to introduce the system of maintaining baby tags in the labor room in the future,” amicus curiae Pravat Ranjan Dash, who was among the committee, said. March 30, Rashmita Mallick had given birth to a girl. However, she refused to accept her, based on a claim by her mother-in-law, who claimed that she had witnessed Rashmita giving birth to a baby boy. Rashmita's husband has lodged a police complaint. Now, the baby is being nursed from other nursing mothers by hospital nurses. Recently in Jodhpur, a royal city in Northern India, two couples squabbled over a baby boy, both claiming the boy was theirs. While a girl, also born on the same day, was abandoned with neither of the couples willing to claim her. The case was finally settled after a DNA test revealed who the actual mother was. Incidents like these only reflect how the girl child in India is considered as a burden on the family.
