Sundargada: In a deeply distressing incident that highlights the severe impact of extreme poverty, a daily wage labourer from Kinjirkela village in Odisha’s Sundargada district has handed over his three young children to the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC), citing his inability to feed or care for them any longer.
The siblings — two daughters aged 10 and 8, and a five-year-old son — were taken into custody by the CWC on Tuesday and shifted the same evening to a children’s home in Rourkela for their immediate care and protection. CWC chairperson Sami Oram confirmed the development, stating that the father approached the committee in despair, explaining that extreme financial hardship left him with no other option.
According to sources, the father, identified as Rahul Kumar, was pushed to the brink of despair after his wife left him for another man. Left alone to raise three children on the erratic income of a daily wage labourer, Kumar found himself trapped in severe financial hardship. He later remarried and had a fourth child with his second wife. The situation deteriorated to the point where providing even two square meals a day became an impossible challenge, and the children began suffering from malnutrition and frequent illnesses.
Initially, he had hoped to surrender all four children, but his eldest 12-year-old daughter missed the bus to Sundargarh and could not accompany them. Neither the father nor the children possess Aadhaar cards or birth certificates, barring them from accessing government welfare schemes that might have provided some relief.
“I don’t even have an Aadhaar card which causes a lot of issues. I try to work, but everything is a struggle. I couldn’t provide them food, medical care, or education. I want them to study, grow up to be educated, and at least get two decent meals a day [05:22]. That is why I took this step,” he told the media on his agonizing decision to approach the CWC.
Recognising the severe distress and the father’s inability to sustain them after a thorough investigation into the family’s socioeconomic conditions to verify the reality of the situation, the committee legally accepted the three minors and immediately transferred them to a designated children’s home (Bala Gruha). The children will be housed, educated, and cared for institutionally under state supervision.
Similar cases have surfaced in the region in recent years, including a poverty-stricken woman in Sundargada who surrendered her sixth child to the CWC in October year amid dire circumstances.
