A 16-year-old girl gave birth to a child while mopping the floor at her employers’ house in Bengaluru. She told investigators she was gang-raped in Odisha in early 2019. The childbirth happened in November 2019.
While washing the floor all of a sudden she experience labour pain, she had a spontaneous delivery.
The girl along with her baby was then escorted to a government hospital, where they were stabilised and details of their alleged rape were revealed.
The case was then taken to the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and a police case was lodged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The 16-year-old minor then revealed to police that she was gang-raped in Odisha in early 2019 and that she arrived in Bengaluru in August 2019. She said she had to live with her cousins, who also worked as domestic helpers, in an apartment complex in south Bengaluru.
CWC then decided to send the girl and her child to an NGO and establish contact with her parents in Odisha. She was reunited with her parents along with her newborn in January 2020.
Committee members also reiterate that the survivors not showing any pregnancy symptoms was shocking.
Anjali Ramanna, the chairperson, CWC, told media that the girl was stabilised along with the newborn at an NGO for over two-and-a-half months.
“Her parents came from Odisha and were keen on taking their daughter and granddaughter home. The girl refused to give away her child for adoption and wanted to take care of her. Odisha police have registered a Pocso case and investigation is on,” Anjali said.
The case has been also brought under the notice of the labour department.
The Bengaluru couple who had employed the teenager is also facing the music for hiring a minor, which is a violation as per Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, the CWC chairperson said.
