Man exchanges baby to raise money for wife's funeral!

A tribal man has exchanged his new born baby to a childless couple for Rs 1,200 to raise the funeral expenses of his wife in a remote village of Orissa.

Bipin Gagarai, who belongs to Sahupur village in Jajpur district, had told an official team led by the district welfare officer, Shivaji Bhuyan, that his wife Gurubari died soon after giving birth to a baby boy, their third child on July 1.

Bipin said he could not get immediate medical attention for his wife because of his penury and she died the next day.

As he had no money to transport the body to his village and undertake funeral expenses, he handed over the two-day-old baby to a childless couple living in the neighbourhood who paid him Rs 1,200.

Bhuyan told said that Bipin, who has two other children, a seven-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter, said he would get back the newborn baby as soon as he paid back the loan he had taken from his neighbour. Bhuyan said it could not be construed as a case of child sale.

Bhuyan said the district administration had decided to shift Bipin's daughter to a Kanyashram (a shelter for girls with school) in Jajpur.

Arrangements would also be made to ensure care and protection of the newborn, he said.