Almost every day newborn babies are found either dead or alive – abandoned in drains and dustbins wrapped in schoolbags and packets – in the capital.
Authorities concerned claim that if they count the abortion rate, the number of such infants may increase sharply as unsafe abortion goes on unabated across the country.
According to the statistics, Anjuman-e-Mofidul Islam buries nine babies on average every month. It is only 10% of the total dead babies across the country.
It could not be ascertained how many clinics are there in the capital where women have abortion. There are about 100 unauthorised clinics in Mohammadpur, Mirpur and Shantinagar areas where pregnant women abort.
After recovering the body of a newborn child, police send it to Dhaka Medical College morgue for post mortem examination, but the report is not used later. For this reason, the persons responsible for the killing of newborn are continuing to commit offence.
Police claim that due to lack of clues and absence of plaintiffs, the cases filed in connection with the killing of newborn children will not proceed.
As per Anjuman’s statistics, it buried at least 97 babies in 2011 while 110 in 2012 and 127 babies in 2013. Abdul Halim, assistant director of the organisation, told the Dhaka Tribune that on average, they buried 110 newborn babies every year.
“Usually, the hospital authorities send these bodies to us, but a large number of bodies cannot be recovered as these bodies are dumped into dustbins and drains and get decomposed in most cases,” Halim said.
“In recent times, the bodies of newborns have been found almost every day,” he added.
According to the DMC morgue register, at least 25 bodies of newborns were recovered in the first two months this year. Dr Sohel Mahmud, associate professor of medicine and forensic department at DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune that on average, they prepared at least 50 neonatal autopsy reports every year.
The reports are of no use as police only file general diary or unnatural death case after the body of a newborn baby is found. So, no one has been punished so far for the death of a newborn.
Abu Yusuf, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told the Dhaka Tribune that these were clueless cases as no one had filed any case or complaint with police in this regard.
“If anyone lodges complaint with police, we will certainly take action against the person responsible after investigation,” he said.
“Sometimes newborns are found alive and in such cases, we hand them over to those who submit applications to us and want to take care of the babies,” he added.
Police recovered the body of a newborn from Kadamtali area last Thursday and handed it over to Anjuman for burial after filing a general diary. Besides, a one-day-old baby was found alive in Mirbagh Balurmath area on Monday.
Sahjahan, a resident of the area, recovered the baby around 8am and later filed a GD with Ramna police station.
On March 7, the body of another newborn was found in Amtola mosque area in Shahjahanpur. On February 15, the bodies of three newborns were recovered from Mohammadpur area and police handed those over to Anjuman for burial.
Abdul Aziz, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur police station, said it was a clueless case and quite difficult for them to trace the criminals. “So, we handed over those bodies to Anjuman for burial.”
Professor Dr Sadeka Halim of Dhaka University sociology department said awareness in this regard should be created among people in the society and the state should take responsibility for it.
“Police have no right to avoid the responsibility and they should be more responsible for it after working with the government and non-governmental organisations,” she added.
Preferring anonymity, a senior official of Marie Stopes Society said every day many young girls went there to have abortion. Most of them were already six months pregnant and the babies were in almost mature stage, the official added.
“As we do not allow abortion after 10 weeks, they go to unauthorised clinics to have abortion. Later, the babies are dumped somewhere,” the official said.