In a shocking incident, a three-year-old physically disabled baby girl was allegedly poisoned by her mother on Tuesday morning in Kesamudram mandal of Mahbubabad district of Telangana. The child is said to be in a critical condition, and has been shifted to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Warangal for treatment.

The mother, L Jyothi (26), was allegedly depressed and worried because it was getting difficult for the family to take care of the child - their second.

“Jyothi, has been spending money on her second child’s treatment. However, due to financial issues, she was very depressed and was unable to take care of the child. Now, she has been constantly crying and accepting that she was depressed and took the extreme step,”  Warangal district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Chairperson Anitha Reddy told TNM.

“The child cannot walk and was born with twisted legs. After her treatment, if she survives, the CWC will take care of the child and will shift her to Shishu Gruha,” she added.

“We are enquiring into the matter - we will file a case or take action accordingly,” said Anitha.

Anitha also said that such cases have been frequent in the district, where parents, due to lack of proper income, tend to abandon their children or take extreme steps.

“We have seen several cases where parents abandoned their children as they are born with a disability. This has been the fourth case in the district where parents have taken such an extreme step,” said Anitha.

Child rights activist Achyutha Rao says there have been 73 such cases in Telangana so far. “Mostly the abandoned or killed children are either girls or disabled. In this case, the baby is a girl child and also disabled.”

"These kind of cases mostly take place in rural districts of Telangana like Adilabad, Warangal, Khammam districts. The main reason for these cases being rampant in those district is because of poverty. The families are unable to bear the medical expenses of disabled children and tend to abandon or kill them,” said Achyuta.