Fading rays of the afternoon sun fell on the sleeping infants of the Ammathottil in Thiruvananthapuram on another rainless day in August. The babies, barely a few months old, napped in cradles laid next to each other, like friends in a dorm, watched over by nurses and ayahs of the Ammathottil — Kerala’s answer to providing a safe space for abandoned newborns.
Only weeks ago, the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW), which runs these cradle homes, received its thousandth baby in nearly 24 years. Sahasra became the 681st girl to reach one of the Ammathottils across the state, most of these tucked into government hospital premises in the form of a cradle. An alarm rings when a baby is placed on the bed, with sensors activated by the infant’s weight, alerting the authorities. Whoever places the baby in the cradle can remain anonymous if they wish to, and leave without a trace. No one will chase after them; the authorities will only come to the baby’s rescue.
Ammathottil, recognised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as one of the best child welfare initiatives in the world, was not always appreciated. In 2002, when it was launched on Children’s Day, critics saw it as a repulsive idea that would only encourage abandonment of babies.
GL Arun Gopi, general secretary of the KSCCW, remembers having similar doubts as a school student. “But I was only a child in school. There were grownups writing against it in newspapers. Acceptance came only when they saw how many babies, who were otherwise banished on the roadside, could be saved, and adopted into families,” he said.
In the early 2000s, multiple incidents of finding newborn babies in precarious conditions — bitten by stray animals or buried among garbage — led to the concept of creating a safe space to leave babies who might otherwise be abandoned on streets and woody terrains.
“The concept was inspired by the Thottil Kulanthai Thittam (Baby Cradle Scheme) initiative of Tamil Nadu, launched by Jayalalithaa’s government [in 1992],” Gopi said.
A month after the first Ammathottil, in Thycaud of Thiruvananthapuram, was opened by the then Social Welfare Minister MK Muneer, a baby girl was found in the cradle. She was called Nithya and was adopted months later, said another KSCCW official, Sasidharan.
Most of the babies left in the cradle have been infants or barely a few months old. But Sasidharan remembered the case of a nearly five-year-old child who was once left on the crib by an autorickshaw driver.
The driver had seen the child being physically abused at Pettah railway station and, distressed by what he saw, brought her to the Ammathottil, Sasidharan said. The child had injuries and burn marks on her body.
After news of the child emerged, several people came forward claiming her, including a family from Bombay and a woman from Thiruvalla, he added. But the girl did not respond to them.
By then, the case was before the court. With the court’s permission, the people who had allegedly abused the child were also allowed to visit her. “This time the child responded well,” Sasidharan said.
But he cautioned that the child’s response did not necessarily establish that they were her family. She might have been kidnapped as a baby and grown accustomed to them, he said. The people claiming her would have had to undergo a DNA test to establish their relationship to her, but they did not. The child therefore remained at Ammathottil until she was later adopted by a family.
Once a baby reaches an Ammathottil, she is immediately attended to by one of the nurses working there, who reports to the officials. A number of ayahs — called Ammamar (plural of mother) — look after the babies day and night, taking turns. There are 84 ayahs across three centres in Thiruvananthapuram.
As adoptions increased, more Ammathottils were built. In 2012, the hundredth child was received and named Sathasree. Today, except in Wayanad, Kannur, and Idukki, where high-tech cradles are envisioned, every other district has an Ammathottil, Arun Gopi said. He added that in the next year, they hoped to make available a breast milk bank to feed the babies.
“When babies are left to die — left in a toilet bucket in Pathanamthitta (in 2023) or thrown from a building in Kochi (in 2024) — I remind the people of Kerala: there is an Ammathottil to leave the children that you feel you can’t take care of,” Gopi said.
However, another controversy in 2021 would once again plague the initiative. The protest by the mother of a one-and-a-half-year-old child, alleging forced separation from her baby and its surrender for adoption, raised questions about trust in the Ammathottil system.
An error by an employee in reporting the sex of the child further affected its reputation. The baby, who was in pre-adoptive foster care with a couple in Andhra Pradesh, was returned to the mother after a court order.
Babies can be reunited with their biological parents if they return soon enough. “I have known at least four or five parents who have come back to claim a child after abandoning it. Most of the time, these are couples who were unmarried at the time of the child’s birth, who later get married and would want the baby back,” Arun Gopi said.
But there are rules. Two months are allowed for a parent to reclaim a baby after abandoning it. Even if they come within this period, they should undergo a DNA test to determine they are the parent(s). “But once the child is certified Legally Free for Adoption (LFA) under the Juvenile Justice Act, then the parents would need to go to court to try for custody,” he added.
Some women have also returned for babies they had left at the cradle after the child’s father abandoned them. In 2021, a child named after the late poet Sugatha Kumari found her way back to her mother, after the mother saw advertisements for the child’s adoption, The New Indian Express reported. More recently, a 35-year-old mother was reported to have reclaimed her baby after feeling guilty about abandoning him.
In all such cases, DNA tests are required as part of the procedure.
Most of the thousand children who have come to the Ammathottils found new homes and families, adopted by parents in India or abroad. Children with disabilities are often adopted by families outside India. Gopi remembered a child who was adopted twice and returned before eventually finding a home in Italy.
Adoptive parents, too, go through a series of procedures before they are trusted with a child, including a home visit by officials and providing proof of financial stability and medical certificates establishing that they are fit to care for a child. They may wait for years to climb to the top of a ranklist — for there is a queue of parents registered for adoption — and once they are given a child, they still have a month and a half of pre-adoption foster care to go through before the adoption becomes final.
“We don’t anymore call Ammathottil a place to abandon your child, but a space to safely hand the baby over,” Gopi said.
On a floor below where the babies slept that late August day was a meeting between two prospective adoptive parents and Child Welfare officials. One of the babies sleeping above might soon leave with them for a new home.