STUDY 2 LAST

Shockingly, the autopsy record showed that out of 70 Shockingly, the autopsy record showed that out of 70newborns found abandoned in south Delhi during the 17-yearperiod, 54 had been murdered. 45 of them had suffered injury on the head by a bluntforce, five were smothered, three strangulated and one had thethroat slit, indicating a particularly cruel attitude. Othercauses of death included natural or accidental like pneumonia,congenital diseases or hypothermia and accidental suffocation,the study said. Among the 238 foetuses, 115 (48 per cent) were males and110 (46 per cent) were females. Sex of the foetus could not beascertained in 13 cases either due to early gestational age ordue to the advanced stage of decomposition, the study said. It revealed that the place of disposal of the discardedfoetus or a post-natal victim was mainly the roadside or blindlanes (40 per cent), followed by rivers and drains (20 percent). "Bodies were also recovered from dustbins, parks,jungles, railway stations, bus stands, religious places,schools and hospitals. The place of recovery could not beascertained in 24 cases," it said, while calling for strictmeasures in cases of abandoning and killing of newborns. "Abandoned foetuses and newborns constituted about 1 percent (range, 0.54–1.82 per cent) of the total autopsies con-ducted during the 17-year period. A trend of a growing numberof cases with increasing gestational age was observed," theAIIMS study said. Behera said this is possibly the "first of its kindstudy and though there have always been news reports fromdifferent parts of the country regarding recovery of abandonedfoetuses and newborns, to our knowledge, statistical data onthe subject are scarce." A previous report, published in 2008, from south Delhihighlighted the sudden increase in the number of sex selectiveabortions after antenatal sex determination became freelyavailable in India. "We studied and analysed the records of all the medico-legal autopsies conducted at the AIIMS from 1996 to 2012 forfoetuses and newborns. The details of these cases were sourcedfrom the autopsy records and the inquest papers of theinvestigating officer," Behera said. The data were analysed for yearly distribution, gender,gestational age, viability at birth, cause and manner ofdeaths in liveborn, and location of recovery of the bodies. "We are thinking of conducting a study for data availablefrom 2013 onwards on the same subject. During the previousstudy our jurisdiction area involved only south Delhi but nowit also includes south-east Delhi," he said. "For central Delhi, the cases go to Maulana Azad MedicalCollege, for north Delhi Lady Hardinge Medical College and forsouth-west either Safdarjung Hospital or DDU Hospital. Thecases of abandoning of foetuses and newborns in these areashave not been studied though," he said. PTI KNDRT