‘Beware of child lifters,’ warns a board on the walls of the Vani Vilas Hospital at Chamarajpet. On Tuesday, as one more baby was lost from the hospital, it was evident that such warnings serve no purpose.
The Vani Vilas Hospital attends to at least 50 deliveries each day. Nearly 200 new-born babies undergo treatment here, daily.
Tuesday’s incident of the loss of the one-day-old infant born to construction-site labourers Nagaraj and Lalitha, their first child after seven years of marriage, was just the latest in a string of such cases. Few of the stolen infants are ever traced again.
Eight months ago, Thavai and Murugesh lost their infant to a woman who loitered in the premises. Their baby, however, was later fortuitously found abandoned under a parked car near the Banaswadi fire station.
Despite repeated instances of stealing of babies, there appeared to be little security preparedness at the hospital on Tuesday.
There were no check points to monitor entry or exit from the hospital. Even the maternity ward, from where the theft of babies has been happening at regular intervals, was left unmanned.
There was little accountability among those responsible for security at the hospital.
Security supervisor at the hospital, Jagadish, admitted that he had no idea who was on duty when the baby was lost. He argued, however, that no woman matching the description offered by the labourer couple had been seen on the premises.
CCTV cameras had been installed at ‘strategic positions’ in the hospital as a security measure after an instance of baby lifting occurred in September 2008, when a 15-day-old infant girl went missing. A set of eight cameras had been installed at different locations then. Hospital authorities had claimed that electronic monitoring of those entering the premises would help in preventing the theft of babies; however, January 2010 saw a repeat of the baby lifting. It was sheer good fortune that the baby was recovered; the images recovered from the CCTV footage were of such poor quality that the thief could not be identified.
Hospital authorities could not explain why no camera was fitted near the labour ward.
The CCTV footage monitor is located at the reception, and the already overburdened receptionist is expected to double as a security person.
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