Crumpled T-shirt clue: MP woman held for dumping newborn in garbage vehicle; cites poverty, social stigma

BHOPAL: A crumpled T-shirt, used to wrap a newborn before she was dumped into a garbage vehicle, turned out to be the crucial clue that led police in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district to a 30-year-old mother.The newborn girl was found dumped inside a garbage vehicle on Friday morning in Bareilly town. The baby was rescued by sanitation workers after a helper on the vehicle heard her cries while collecting waste in ward number 13.The woman, detained on Sunday, confessed to abandoning her daughter out of financial distress and fear of social shame.The trail began when police circulated details of the garment. A local man recognized the T-shirt and recalled giving it to one of two women working in his house during Holi.

That tip was enough for Hazira police to swing into action. But the investigation needed sensitivity.To avoid alerting the suspects, doctors, nurses and women constables disguised themselves as health workers conducting malaria tests. At one home, their suspicions grew stronger. The woman was escorted to the civil hospital, where doctors confirmed she had recently delivered a child.Faced with evidence, the daily-wage worker — living with her father and separated from her husband — broke down.

She admitted to secretly delivering the baby at home without informing Anganwadi workers or hospital staff, and then abandoning her in a garbage vehicle. “She cited extreme financial hardship and fear of ostracisation as reasons,” said a police officer.Hospital records from the day confirmed that all four baby girls born there were safe with their mothers, ruling out hospital negligence. The woman, police later found, had skipped work for two days after the incident before returning on the third day to avoid suspicion.The infant is now in safe custody while her mother undergoes treatment at the civil hospital under police protection. Officers said she has refused to take the child back and that legal opinion is being sought on the next steps.Madhya Pradesh has recorded some of the country’s lowest sex ratios at birth in past surveys, and cases of newborn abandonment — though sporadic — often trace back to a mix of poverty, lack of family support, and stigma attached to unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, say officials.