A 16-year-old rape survivor in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, whose pregnancy has advanced too far to be legally aborted, has asked the state or the judiciary to put up her child for adoption after it is born, The Times of India reported.
The girl, who was raped by her employer on the promise of marriage, which wasn't honoured, was left in the lurch after two appeals for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) in a lower court as well as a fast-track court were rejected.
By the time her case was heard in the courts, the girl was over 12 weeks pregnant, which exceeded the permissible limit for MTP. Although there have been instances where courts have allowed MTP after the prescribed time had elapsed, in her case, no such exceptions were made.
Faced with this verdict, the girl's father moved the Allahabad High Court, which asked him to file an application for a medical check-up to the chief medical officer (CMO) of the local hospital.
Last week, when the girl went for the investigations along with her father, the CMO kept them waiting because he was busy with a government event to mark Tehsil Diwas. Though she was 32 weeks pregnant by this time, Dr Vijay Yadav did not designate anyone else to attend to her. He asked them to return another day instead.
Since then, after a week of deliberation, the medical panel has submitted its report denying the girl the right to undergo MTP.
The girl, in turn, has accused the system of being neither understanding "nor empathetic" to her cause, and is set to file another plea in the high court, demanding to know the future of the baby to be born.
Not only will the child not have a father's name, since her rapist and his family have rejected any responsibility for her or the child, the baby will be an additional mouth to feed in a household which is already struggling to make ends meet.
"I will not be in a position to raise the baby because of our finances and because the child will be a constant reminder of my trauma and shame," she told TOI yesterday, while her father, who works as a labourer, echoed similar sentiments.
"We are clear that we do not want this child as my daughter is a child herself. Nobody will accept her for marriage in future. Besides, the entire village is against this pregnancy. We have received threats that we will be forced to leave our house if this birth takes place," he told the newspaper.
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