The Unborn Speaks

Dear,

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India,
Swarming philanthropists
The so-called human activists
And readers.

Since long I had wanted to say it all. Put it on the paper. Pour the words from my tiny throbbing heart into readable stuff. And now is the chance.



I am the unborn child of a mother who is not even aware she is carrying me. When lakhs of infertile couples make a beeline to infertility clinics, pray fervently to Almighty for blessing them with a tiny life, I was planted in my mother’s womb by someone who remains a mystery even in eyes of law. I am, what you call, a product of rape and helplessness.

I am child of a mother who was abandoned as she was mentally ill and there is no surety whether I will not carry her mental health.

The moment I got seeded in my mother, it created ripples. Because she is no ordinary woman, but a 9-years-old mind in the body of a *19-years-old young lady that can produce a child but doesn’t have even an iota’s inkling of the joys or sorrows of having a baby.

As directed by the doctors and told to the Supreme Court of India, she is waiting eagerly for a “bhaiya” (me) to come in this world with whom she could play.

But what if I am a didi and not a bhaiya? I am thankful for the Chief Justice of India to allow me to take birth when millions of female fetuses are consigned to sewages, thrown on piles of garbage or simply flushed down the drain even before being born.

I owe a word of thanks to the philanthropists and the human rights activists too who have been quoting different treaties to apprise Supreme Court that every individual has a right to take birth and live.

My only question is that where were the same set of laws and people when my mother was repeatedly raped by men of her father’s age in bathrooms of a place, which was meant to save her, give her shelter? (Nari Niketan, Chandigarh).

In a nation, where children born out of love (without marriages), find no social approval, will I not be brandished as a “rape child”?

Will not the day of my birth hog the limelights with newspapers and television channels screaming – Rape victim gives birth to a baby? So many people have debated on my existence. Many expressed the desire to adopt me. But if I am a girl, will I get the same acceptance?

Will I not be a part of brood of children where men have impregnated mentally ill or handicapped or helpless women?

When my mother’s sexual offenders walk free, can anyone guarantee that I will have a safe childhood? Especially, if I am a girl, can someone assure me that I will not meet my mother’s fate? Mr Chief Justice, at the highest seat of law, don’t you foresee my future as I see?

I am 23 weeks old now. Hope to see you folks soon with flashy cameras.

Love you
The Baby

(*The 19-years-old mentally challenged girl was repeatedly raped by different men during her stay in different government run shelter homes, leading to her being pregnant. On July 21, the Supreme Court of India allowed continuing of her pregnancy despite recommendations by doctors that the victim was not in a state to bring up the child and the pregnancy be terminated.)