origin of the babies and children at the ashram

People are curious about the babies and children at the ashram. Naturally, I am not able to discuss any particular child, but in general there is a common theme - they are nearly all girls. I have read that abortions of girls and infanticide of females is extremely high in this state of Punjab. It is believed that parents are ok with 1 girl, and can accept a 2d sometimes, but a 3d girl is difficult for them to handle. There is still an outdated notion of girls being a burden and so parents, or often it would be their families, are not too thrilled to have a girl. It appears to also relate to whether they already have a boy or not. It is odd, given that it is increasingly common for the Punjabi males to have a serious problem with alcohol or drugs, but that is the way it is.

Many of the babies who end up at the ashram come without any history or background. They are abandoned at various places and end up here. The wonderful part is that almost every child here is getting adopted into really affluent families where they will have lifestyles their parents could not even dream of.

I was lucky to have googled general articles on adoption and have found THE article of Sofi's story.  She was found abandoned in a bush under a by-pass in the town of Hoshiarpur and her wailing was heard by a passerby who then took her to the hospital; she was transferred the next day to Nari Niketan and eventually she was offered to me. Sofi was suffering from quite a few injuries to the head and her left eye and had to have a transfusion of blood in the hospital when they found her. She was very weak and severely malnourished, and was continuously ill even for the 1st 3 months that I was with her, until the medical treatment and love, food, and supplements started to kick in. She was barely 5 kgs at 11 months and is a healthy 10 kgs at 17 months! There is no way to know who her biological parents were or why they had to give her up.

There are also quite a few cases where the parents are too poor to afford the required medical treatment and seem to give them up for that reason. The ashram takes care of the children and pays for their medical treatment, and most of them then are adopted into good families.

It is also a common story that the parents split up or one or both of the parents are deceased and so there is no one to look after the children.

The ashram is doing something really wonderful in finding good homes for the children with special needs and the older children who would normally not have a chance to be adopted.

The numer of children coming into the official adoption system is dropping dramatically each year in India, despite the huge number of homeless and poor abandoned children, so I am extremely fortunate to have found Sofi.

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