(Image source from: Woman puts unborn baby for sale to build a house})

The wife of a rickshaw puller and a mother of three has put up an advertorial in a leading Hindi daily, offering to sell her unborn for a whopping Rs. 6,00,000.

The incident, which  was reported in Yamunanagar district in Haryana,  left the civil society in a daze.

The lady, identified as Pooja, revealed that she put her unborn child for sale as she wanted to repay loans and build a house. “My husband [a rickshaw puller now] incurred losses in business. We don’t have means to look after the three children. We have so much of loan to pay and need to build a house too,” she said.

The woman put up an advertisement with her mobile number. As soon as the advertisement was published, she was flooded with phone calls, the lady revealed. However, the maximum amount she was offered for her unborn child was Rs. 3,00,000 only.

While social activists has lambasted the government on this, the police say that they can't arrest the lady unless there is a formal complaint filed against her.

The district administration, however, has ordered a probe into the matter.

“It is nothing short of human trafficking for which the punishment varies between the minimum five year imprisonment and maximum being life imprisonment,” Ajay Chaudhary, a Gurgaon-based lawyer said.

Social activist Poonam Bhatnagar questioned, “Do police wait for formal complaint when they arrest robbers or criminals while planning a crime?”

Despite being entitled to social benefits, Pooja’s family has not received any benefits yet.

AW: Suchorita Dutta