Mumbai: Though officially the number of abandoned babies in the city is coming down, another child was found abandoned at a church in Santacruz, reports MidDay.
A 7-month old girl was found at the doorstep of a church. The staff of the church found the baby yesterday night.
"We don't know whose child it is, but we found her outside the church gate. We have informed the Santacruz police about it," said a church staff.
The church is taking care of the child for now, but she will soon be sent to Mankhurd Children's Home.
"We will inquire in the area and print the girl's picture in newspapers. We hope to find out who the child belongs to.
But if after four months we can't trace the parents, we will send the girl for adoption," said a police official with Santacruz police station.
Under section 317 of the IPC, abandoning of a child below 12 years of age by parents or a caretaker is a criminal offence attracting a maximum jail-term of seven years.
The mother of a two-month-old boy, suffering from a heart ailment and Down's syndrome, a kind of degenerative genetic disorder, abandoned her child at Sion Hospital on November 14, 2010.
The child, Aamir Babu Mohammad, had been admitted at the hospital for treatment on November 6 and marooned on November 14.
But the incident came to light two days after the abandonment. Police suspected that the mother had left the child due to his ailments.
Reports from Child Welfare Centre or CWC show that there were 65 babies abandoned in 2009 as compared to 77 in 2008 and 96 in 2006 in the city.
