July 14, 2008	Monday	Rajab 10, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 13: Leaving ‘unwanted’ infants in cradles placed outside Edhi centres is not an uncommon phenomenon, but it is rare for poverty-stricken parents, often widows, handing over their children to the centres so that they may survive.

And Mairaj Ahmed, a volunteer at Edhi Foundation, was shocked when he had to face two such cases in 24 hours.

On Saturday afternoon, a woman came to the centre with a six-month-old boy. “She appeared to be a close relative of the baby’s mother,” Mr Ahmed said. “She just told us that they can’t take care of the baby because they are living below subsistence level.”

The second case was reported on Sunday afternoon when another woman approached Edhi volunteers with her four children. She is wife of a bangle worker. According to Mr Ahmed, the woman said she could not bring up the children properly. Her husband recently married another woman and is unable to take care of two families.

“The three boys and a girl were without shoes and wearing shabby clothes.”

However, the mother decided to take her children back home when she was told that according to the policy of the organisation, she would not be allowed to see the children after they had been adopted by the Edhi Foundation.

“Both were destitute women,” Mr Ahmed said.

The six-month-old boy of the first woman has been sent to Karachi where he will be lodged at a shelter run by Kubra Edhi, daughter of Abdul Sattar Edhi.