HYDERABAD: Poor couple seek govt help

Published September 16, 2008

HYDERABAD, Sept 15: A couple appealed to the government on Monday to come to their rescue as they are homeless and find it hard to make both ends meet.

Shakeel, a rickshaw driver, and his wife Shaharbano came to the press club after some TV channels ran reports that the couple had sold their daughter to a family and were planning to sell another new-born as well.

The woman and her husband rejected reports that she had sold her child, Alveena, a two and a half year old girl, to a family and was ready to sell another infant. She claimed that her husband ran a rickshaw but they were not able to make both ends meet.

“We lived in a rented house but it’s no more available to us because my husband couldn’t pay the rent,” she said. She said that she could not sell her children but did admit that her daughter had been adopted by one Mr Aziz, a shopkeeper of the area where they lived.

“Yes I did go to a Syed family in our area because I was seriously ill after giving birth to another baby. I thought the family is issueless and they will adopt the baby. I did ask them to help me monetarily because I needed financial assistance,” Ms Shaharbano said.

Her husband Shakeel said that they had not sold their daughter to anyone and categorically denied that he was a drug addict. Any doctor could examine him at any time, he said.

She said that she needed help by government. The couple lives near Mukhi Bagh and Shakeel is not able to pay rent of the house.

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