PUDUKKOTTAI: While the lockdown has severely affected businesses and incomes of daily wage and migrant laborers, the plight of such families with newborn babies is the stuff of nightmares. At a time when doctors are cancelling monthly checkups of pregnant women to protect them from COVID-19, there is no option for the mother of a newborn baby who is living on the road.
Anjaneyalu and his family of 14 travelled to Pudukkottai from Tirupati a month ago in search of greener pastures. They buy and sell old iron items for a living and keep travelling. Already hit without any business before the lockdown, Anjaneyalu had to deal with his wife delivering a baby in the third week of March. "We were staying on a highway in Pudukkottai. As my wife went into labour, we did not know what to do. Someone told us to call 108, but before the ambulance arrived, my wife had delivered. My mother helped her with the delivery," said Anjaneyalu.
As she had delivered, the new mother refused to go to hospital and the baby was born on the highway of Pudukkottai, behind a truck. They stayed without food or work after the lockdown, when they were spotted by Pudukai Selva, who runs an NGO. Selva immediately called police, had the baby checked in hospital and got them admitted to a government- run shelter home. "There are so many families like this in Pudukkottai, who have come here in search of work. Now, they are left in the lurch. I was shocked when I saw this 12-day- old child being cared for under a tree in the open, when everyone is advised to stay indoors. I was able to help them, but who will help all these migrant labourers in the city?" asked Selva.