As India debates over Ram temple, poor Tripura father sells his infant for Rs 200

A poor father in Tripura sold his eight-month-old daughter for Rs 200.

Agartala, Dec 6: Parental love is the only love that is truly selfless, unconditional and forgiving, goes a famous saying. Then what forces parents to abandon their children? There are multiple reasons for that, but in India mostly it is poverty.

Take for instance the horrific news report about a father from Tripura who was "forced" to sell his eight-month-old daughter for Rs 200. The man, a resident of Teliamura's Maharanipur village, told ANI that because of abject poverty he was forced to sell his daughter for a paltry sum of Rs 200.

The man already has four children before the daughter was born eight months ago.
"Tripura: Man in Teliamura's Maharanipur says that he sold his 8-month-old daughter for Rs.200; adds that he did it because of poverty," tweeted ANI.

While the national media has reported about the sad episode of poverty in the northeastern state, the Tripura government is yet to issue any statement in this regard.

In May this year, a Tripura tribal mother also sold her daughter for Rs 200. In a similar incident, another baby was sold by its parents in Tripura in April this year.

At least four such cases of child selling by poor tribal parents in Tripura have been reported in the last two years, according to government officials.

Since Assembly elections in Tripura are scheduled in 2018, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to make child selling incidents in the state an election issue.

The BJP has already dubbed the selling of children by parents a failure of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) government to eradicate poverty in the tribal belts of the state.

On Tuesday, when political parties and religious groups marked the 25th anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, and discussed in length whether a Ram temple should be built or not on the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site, the Tripura episode is a reminder that no political party is interested in addressing and solving the real problem of India--poverty.

OneIndia News