India Needs a Law to Protect Its Abandoned Infants
India needs a dedicated Infant Protection Act because Section 93 of the BNS criminalizes abandonment as a crime rather than a plea for help, creating a "trash-can paradox" where unwed mothers and parents in crisis hide births and dump infants in fields/garbage dumps/railway stations instead of seeking help; while the Juvenile Justice Act offers a safer alternative of Safe Surrender to the Child Welfare Committee with no FIR, it is barely used (709 criminal abandonment cases in 2021 alone) due to low awareness and distrust, and even when rescued, abandoned infants face years of institutional limbo unlike surrendered infants who are quickly freed for adoption, so the law must shift from punishment to governance that guarantees rapid care and adoption.
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