10-year-old rape survivor becomes mother, delivers a girl child

The 10-year-old rape survivor, whose abortion plea was rejected by the Supreme Court on health grounds, delivered a baby girl on Thursday at a Chandigarh hospital.

According to doctors, the girl was safe but the newborn baby was kept in intensive care unit (ICU) for being under weight.

"The minor girl delivered a baby through C-section this morning. The infant's weight is 2.2 kg and it has been admitted to neo natal ICU. As far as the girl is concerned, she is stable and will be kept in a separate room," Dr Dasari Harish, chairperson of the committee which had been constituted for the treatment of the rape victim, told PTI.

A team of doctors of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Chandigarh was keeping a regular watch on her condition. She delivered the baby on Thursday morning through C-section and the new born is stable despite being underweight at 2.02 kg.

"A team of doctors was involved in delivering the child.In the team, there were three gynaecologists, an anaesthetist, a neonatologist and a paediatrician," Dr Harish said.

The girl was not informed that she has delivered a child as her parents told her that she is being operated for a stone in her stomach. Her father of has also requested authorities to put up the new born for adoption reported news agency PTI.

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She was repeatedly raped allegedly by her maternal uncle for several months. The horrific and inhuman incident came to light last month when the girl was hospitalised on the complaint of a stomach ache. Doctors, during her checkup, discovered that she is over 30 months pregnant.

Earlier last month, the Supreme Court had turned down the abortion plea of the rape survivor citing that she was 32 weeks pregnant and that it was too late for her to abort now. 

The apex court had asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to consider its suggestion to set up a permanent medical board in every state to take a prompt decision on prospects of early abortion in view of the fact that such cases are reaching the top court in a big way.