Jain couple embracing monkhood: Child Rights body seeks report on plan to secure kid's future

A day before a young couple from Madhya Pradesh was set to embrace monkhood, the Gujarat child rights commission on Friday sought to know what steps the parents have taken to secure the future of their daughter.

The body has asked the Police Commissioner and the Collector to submit a report on it, PTI reported.

Sumit Rathore (35) and wife Anamika (34) hail from Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh, where the former took care of their family business and the latter worked as an engineer.

It was reported that both decided to renounce the material world, and leave behind their three-year-old daughter and property worth Rs 100 crore to become monks.

A religious ceremony marking their initiation into Jain monasticism under the Shwetambar sect is scheduled to take place today in Surat, Gujarat.

According to the PTI report, Jagruti Pandya, chairperson of the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR), said that a person had filed an RTI application on the matter.

"Through the RTI application, a person sought to know from us what will happen to the child if the couple become monks," she said.

And as the couple will be taking their deeksha in Gujarat, the state administration has been asked to look into the issue.

"While most of the couple's family members who have arrived in Surat remained tight-lipped about the fate of the child, some others told reporters that the couple's family members will take care of the child," the report states.

Earlier media reports had quoted Ashok Chandaliya, Anamika’s father, as saying that he will look after his granddaughter.

A Hindustan Times report stated that Sumit and Anamika's decision did not exactly surprise their families as the couple had started preparing to get their deekshas when their daughter was just eight months old.