Medical care for abused, pregnant girls in India

Since our last update in May, no more girls have come to Tejus Home but we’ve had time to take good care of the 3 who were still with us.

All three have given birth but one of them finally decided to give her baby for adoption. The girl we’ll call Nithiya and this is her story:

Nithiya was 14 when she came to Tejus Home. Insisting that her pregnancy was following a consensual relationship (even though children below the age of 18 cannot legally give consent), she wanted to keep her baby. Her parents were not enthusiastic about this at all and did not want her back home with a baby. Nithiya is a very good student and wants to be a doctor so she started thinking about placing her child in a children’s home until the end of her studies. We discouraged her from choosing this option as it would not be fair on the child to grow up in a children’s home not knowing whether one day he/she would in fact re-join his/her mother. Just before her delivery, she chose, with a heavy heart, to relinquish her child.

Her Catholic-run school no longer wanted her back stating that she had brought a bad reputation to them already. The Muslim neighbourhood in which she lived was also very negative towards her and her family so they moved house.

Nithiya started in her new school but didn’t like it. “They are not disciplined enough, she would not be able to study there.” So one evening she went to the local police station and filed a complaint – “the school she wished to study in would not accept her because of the pending case of child sexual abuse of which she was the victim.” The police contacted the Child Welfare Committee and they called the school and insisted that they take her back. They had to agree and she started school there yesterday.

I don’t know how her day went but I can only imagine the stares and whispers aimed at her. The strength of this girl is amazing, she knows what she wants and will do her best to get it.