Click to play videoNew Delhi: Newborns all look alike. At least for those outside their immediate family. They are also unable to help with any information on themselves or resist force — perhaps why at least 10,000 newborns alone get stolen every year.
And if you can't stop the thefts, at least you can attempt a reduction, and this can be done, says the Government, by way of providing identity cards and insurance cover to newborns.
Says Member National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Sandhya Bajaj, "We are planning to provide ID cards for all newborns. This will provide all round benefits and help in reducing trafficking.''
The plan is ambitious. By its own admission, it will take the Government at least a year to put the system in place.
The proposal entails that cards have DNA details of the child, photographs, details of parents and lineage, health particulars, physical irregularities if any and address.
The photo-ID will also be updated every year till the age of five. An initial nominal insurance will be paid by hospitals and this cover will later be paid by schools that the children go to.
This plan could well be the beginning of the much-promised photo ID scheme.
Says a senior, Delhi-based Neonatologist, Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, "I think it's a great initiative by the Government and am glad that they are looking into this."
And the Government is also asking the police to help it in its endeavour to tag newborns. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked the police to provide statistics on stolen newborns from every district police station in the country — for till now, the Government has no exact data on child theft.
And the common man agrees, the general verdict being that since no one wants their child to get lost, IDs are a good initiative.
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