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Thursday, February 17, 2005
Rent-a-womb service
What is an orphanage in search of a revenue stream to do? Well, if there are girls in the orphanage, you could always rent their wombs out. No, this isn't tasteless speculation, but real life. The Times of India reports that an orphanage in Ghaziabad has done just this. The report focuses on a 22-year-old girl called Sonia:
The girl apparently remembers only the last three years of her life, and has undergone psychiatric treatment in the past, which is hardly a surprise, given what she must have been through. Her first marriage went bust because her husband and his family, in her words, "found out I was a Muslim, and made life miserable for me. So I returned to the orphanage."
The two photographs that accompany the story, one on each page, are wedding photographs of Sonia with each of her husbands. Look closely at both the pictures, at her and the men with her. In their eyes, there is no humanity. In her eyes, there is no hope. Justice? Forget about it.
Sonia is an orphan, who's already been through two broken marriages—without any court being involved. In the second case, she was given to an already married, 48-year-old merchant in Sonepat, so that he could have a child by her.
In May last year, the two 'married' in a private ceremony. After two months of trying to bear a child, she returned to the orphanage. The merchant reported to the Garhmukteshwar police that he had bought her from the orphanage for Rs 71,000. He also alleged that the orphanage sold girls and then got them back for another sale.
The girl apparently remembers only the last three years of her life, and has undergone psychiatric treatment in the past, which is hardly a surprise, given what she must have been through. Her first marriage went bust because her husband and his family, in her words, "found out I was a Muslim, and made life miserable for me. So I returned to the orphanage."
The two photographs that accompany the story, one on each page, are wedding photographs of Sonia with each of her husbands. Look closely at both the pictures, at her and the men with her. In their eyes, there is no humanity. In her eyes, there is no hope. Justice? Forget about it.
