Driven by poverty and hunger, mother throws infant son into river, villagers rescue baby

Kolkata: There is no work for a long time. There is no money in the house. There is no food. What do a one and a half-year-old child understand about poverty? The child kept on crying incessantly due to hunger. Her mother, feeling helpless, went straight to the river to float her child. The incident took place in the Mainaguri block of Jalpaiguri. The family lives in the Marichbari area adjacent to Teesta Bridge.

There is a lack of money at home as her husband is unemployed. There is no food in the house. Bipul Bawali is a carpenter by profession. He has a three-year-old daughter and a one-and-a-half-year-old son at home. After Bipul left the house on Monday morning, his wife Seema Bawali was alone with the children.

The infant son had been crying since morning due to hunger. The mother, out of sheer desperation, threw her one-and-a-half-year-old son into the Teesta River filled to the brim during monsoon. The villagers were present at the river bank at that time. They rescued the child and took Seema away. He said that Bipul had not had any work for a couple of weeks. There was a shortage of food in the house and the child was crying due to hunger.

This led to a dispute between the husband and wife. After that, Bipul went out of the house in search of work, and Seema allegedly took her son and daughter to the Teesta River near the house and threw the child into the river.

Seema said, "His father has gone out. There is no milk in the house. I will have to endure my son's crying all day. So I said, 'Let's take you to the river. No one will give me food anymore." Citizens are asking how such an incident could happen despite the state government's many people-oriented projects. A team from the block administration is going to meet the family.