In Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh, a government school teacher and his wife have been accused of attempting to bury their three-day-old son alive due to fear of repercussions from the state’s two-child policy. The couple, Bablu Dandolia, 38, and Rajkumari, 28, allegedly abandoned their fourth child in a forest on September 26, just three days after his birth. Fortunately, villagers heard the infant’s cries from under the stones, rescued him, and took him to the hospital.
The police arrested the couple on Tuesday, coinciding with the release of data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) revealing that Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest number of infant abandonment cases for four consecutive years. Initially charged with abandonment, Dandolia and his wife now face charges of attempted murder, following the emergence of a video showing the baby buried beneath stones.
According to Dhanora Police Station in-charge Lakhanlal Ahirwar, the couple already has three children: an 11-year-old daughter, a seven-year-old daughter, and a four-year-old son. They reportedly concealed the existence of their third child from official records but feared that the birth of a fourth child would jeopardize Bablu’s employment. On September 23, Rajkumari gave birth to a son, and three days later, the couple allegedly transported the baby on a motorcycle to the forest and left him there.
Under Madhya Pradesh’s two-child policy, government employees are prohibited from having more than two children.
