No shortage of parents for Om

Families all over the country have expressed interest in adopting Om Gaikwad, a four-year-old boy who was abandoned at the Mumbai Central railway station on Wednesday. 

“There was something so touching about him. The moment I read the story, I went to the police station to see if there was anything I could do,” said Saroj Raicar, 55, a librarian with the Sophia College. “I would love to adopt him, but I am old and live alone. So I’m praying he finds a loving family.”

According to the police, “Besides Mumbai, people have been calling from New Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarth, and other states wanting to adopt the boy.”

When Borivali resident Suresh Gaikwad — currently involved in a custody battle over his son, whose name is also Om — read the story, he thought it was his own son. Though he later learnt that it was not his child, Gaikwad too wants to adopt Om. 

Meanwhile, Om has been taken to a remand home in Dongri, where he will be kept until his family is traced.

RPF inspector Yash Mishra said, “We will be placing advertisements in local and regional language newspapers to request his parents to come forward. If we can’t find them, then the social workers at the remand home will begin interviewing prospective parents who wish to adopt the child.”