TO be born unwanted and abandoned to a risky future is the worst fate for a new life. According to yesterday’s report in this newspaper, since 2021, the Edhi Foundation has buried 576 newborns in Karachi — 200 in 2021, 289 in 2022 and a minimum of 87 in the first half of 2023. It also revealed that official records of infanticide were wildly at odds with the number of infants buried by the foundation, prompting Sindh Police to “issue formal instructions to register a criminal case if a dead newborn is found abandoned”.

A depressing shift came to light with Faisal Edhi’s disclosure that the Edhi cradles at their centres now mostly hold dead babies. And ironically, as numbers of living children in cradles dwindle in the midst of surging infant abandonment figures, adoption requests have to be turned down. Clearly, the hazards of deserting newborns should compel our society to adopt an empathetic approach, not condemnation or judgement. Many factors prevent women from keeping babies, such as conception from rape where, instead of the crime, the mother and child are stigmas. Psychiatrists say that undiagnosed postpartum depression is another common cause. In present times, the tyranny of poverty and joblessness leads parents to give up girl children. State-sponsored campaigns advocating family planning, an infant’s right to life and the assurance of concealed identity and immunity from legal action if a parent chooses a welfare crib can persuade mothers to avoid garbage heaps and opt for Edhi’s cradles. Moreover, hospitals and neighbourhood clinics should also instal cradles in labour rooms and at their doorsteps so babies stay safe. The state must help citizens to negotiate taboos with easier adoption procedures for childless couples and even single women. It should consider that neither rape, poverty nor illness are reasons to disgrace and a baby’s well-being and security are pivotal. A home is any baby’s last stop.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2023