From missing guards to hawkers inside maternity wards and unauthorised entry of female visitors late at night, conditions at city hospitals make child theft a cakewalk
From missing guards to hawkers inside maternity wards and unauthorised entry of female visitors late at night, conditions at city hospitals make child theft a cakewalk
Government-run hospitals have become hot spots for baby thefts and the state is doing precious little to prevent it.
A few months ago the Bombay High Court had asked the state government to increase security measures at maternity and paediatric wards in hospitals.
Despite that, a baby was stolen from Mumbai's V N Desai Hospital a few weeks ago.
To prevent this, CCTV cameras at entry and exit points of wards, round-the-clock female security guards,
walky-talky for guards, matching bands for child and mother and recording their hand and footprints are some of the measures proposed by the high court.
The high court has now told the state government to file a compliance report by the end of the month on how its security instructions were followed.
MiD DAY reviewed the security arrangements in three of the biggest public hospitals but found the security disappointing. Security guards were missing outside maternity wards.
Hawkers were being allowed inside the wards and unauthorised entry to female visitors late at night was also being granted.
The directives of the high court were being ignored completely.
Where: Kamala Nehru hospital, Mangalwar Peth
What we saw
Here too we noticed that there were no CCTV cameras at either the maternity or the paediatric or
neonatal wards. However, security guards were present outside the wards. As soon as we approached the maternity ward, a group of guards approached us to know the purpose for clicking pictures.
Another positive aspect was that some female guards had maintained a register to record details of all the visitors to the wards.
However, the guards had no walky-talkies and neither did they wear any identification badges. Most importantly, few women and their babies had matching bands on their arms.
Where: Sassoon hospital, near Pune station
What we saw
As we approached the maternity ward, the first thing we noticed was that there were no CCTV cameras anywhere in sight to record our movements. However, what we observed next was a real shocker ufffd there were male vendors inside the female maternity ward. The vendors were selling eatables to the women there.
Besides, there were no security guards ufffd either male or female ufffd in sight, as we clicked pictures of the so-called sensitive area. There was no one to stop us or object to it.
Even more shocking was the presence of men near the labour room.
While the high court has clearly said that no post-natal patients should be allowed outside the ward, a woman who had delivered a baby recently was seen walking out of the ward. On enquiry, she said her mother-in-law was looking after her baby, while she went out for a walk.
Where: Pune Cantonment Board hospital, Golibar Maidan
What we saw
The security measures were as good as nil in this hospital. There were no CCTV cameras or female security guards outside the maternity and paediatric wards. The movements of visitors were also not being tracked.
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