It is impossible not to feel shame in the presence of Rajitha. Let down by every adult she has ever known, she managed to escape the monsters who battered her. They are the reason she, eight years old, broken-boned, lies in a governmental hospital.She escaped the house in Mahabubnagar in Andhra Pradesh where she cooked, cleaned, tried to sleep. She was sold to her employers by a man who ran the orphanage where Rajitha stayed till a few months ago.
The doctors treating her don't want her to speak. She is exhausted.
"Actually the weight of the child is 10 kg. Expected weight is 20 kg, that is 50 per cent less. That is grade-4 malnutrition," says Dr Venkatachary, a paediatrician.
The orphanage that Rajitha stayed at had closed down. Nobody knows when exactly. The government may have continued to fund it for several months after it closed. The registration records are fuzzy, to say the least. The government now admits that laws have to change dramatically and urgently to ensure orphans and adoptions are closely monitored.
It seems odd that these basic precautions should have to be introduced and enforced. Yet, there were other orphans who were at the same welfare home as Rajitha. They are not all accounted for yet.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/andhras-rajitha-a-survivor-at-eight-recovers-alone-23735.php?cp
0 comments:
Post a Comment