A two-month-old baby boy in Virudhunagar, born to a dalit father and a dominant caste mother, was allegedly kidnapped by the mother’s family in order to protect their honour.
The baby’s mother has approached the DGP and national human rights commission asking that the baby be returned to her. She has demanded that her parents should be interrogated in this case.
Mr A. Kathir, director of the dalit rights NGO Evidence, has been assisting the mother’s fight to get her baby back. “Our team met the young mother Udhaysurya and her husband Vijayakumar.
They said they got married against the wishes of Udhaysurya’s parents in 2011. They received threats often from them saying that they had ‘ruined’ the honour of the family. They said Udhaysurya‘s parents became angry when they came to know that she was pregnant,” Mr Kathir said.
He said Udhaysurya broke down saying that her family took her to Ramanathapuram when she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and abused her.
“When Udhaysurya was delivered of a baby, the family members separated the baby from her. They told her that she shouldn’t ask for the child because the baby was born to a dalit man,” he said.
Udhaysurya escaped from her family with the help of Vijayakumar two weeks ago. She has lodged a complaint against her family now, he said, adding that Udhaysurya’s family should be questioned and the baby restored to her Virudhunagar SP Najmul Hoda told DC that he would investigate the case and help Udhaysurya get her baby back.