Joint efforts by officials, NGO save a three-year-old from life on streets

A three-year-old boy was rescued from the faith of becoming a rag-picker due to the collective efforts of a voluntary organisation HELP, Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) and Prakasam district Women and Child Welfare Department officials.

A three-year-old boy was rescued from the fate of becoming a rag-picker due to the collective efforts of a voluntary organisation HELP, Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) and Prakasam district Women and Child Welfare Department officials.

Speaking to The Hindu, APSCPCR member Battula Padmavathi said, “Ponnam Durgamma from Pallepalem village in Kothapatnam mandal was the third wife of Ponnam Polaiah, who has five wives. They used to collect scrap papers and empty plastic containers on the road side near railway station and bus stand. They do not have permanent residence and stay on streets wherever they go.”

As Durgamma had been suffering from ill health for some time, ASHA worker Ponnadi Yashoda and ANM D. Ratna Kumari from Kothapatnam admitted her into Ongole RIMS Hospital where she died on 24 May while undergoing treatment. Unable to afford the charges to perform his wife’s last rituals, Polaiah took his three-year-old son and left the hospital without informing anyone, Ms. Padmavathi said.

RIMS Hospital staff kept Durgamma’s body in the mortuary and searched for Polaiah. After three days, an ASHA worker from Pallepalem found him and informed District Public Health Nursing Officer M. Suguna that he denied to take his wife’s dead body due to his poverty. She referred the matter to a non-profit organisation HELP.

Taking consent from the deceased’s husband, HELP representative B.V. Sagar immediately contacted Dr. Ch. Sudhakar Babu, HOD of Anatomy Department of RIMS Medical College, to hand over the body to the college for medical studies. He also spoke to District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) P. Dinesh Kumar for taking care of the three-year-old boy.

Mr. Dinesh gave counselling to Polaiah, who finally agreed to leave his son and signed a ‘surrender deed’ to admit the boy in Shishu Gruha at Ramnagar in Ongole.