BALASORE: Poverty compelled a tribal couple to sell their six-day-old baby son in Soro area of the district on Friday evening.Though the administration on Saturday launched a manhunt to spot the couple of Khaira who bought the baby for Rs 8,000, their whereabouts could not be ascertained.Official sources said the couple - Bharata Singh and Saraswati Singh - who hail from Basta block - have been staying in a dingy room near Soro railway godown for the past few years. While Bharata was eking out a living by pulling rickshaw, Saraswati was a daily wager. The couple already have two children - a six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. The neighbours said the couple quarrelled often over the financial condition. “After Saraswati delivered a son six days back, a middleman asked us if we would give the baby to a childless couple for adoption,” said Bharata. Saraswati said it was a Herculean task for them to rear the three children amid acute poverty. The incident has brought to the surface faulty implementation of government schemes in the district. Soro Tehsildar Sambit Nayak, who met the couple on Saturday morning, said both Bharata and Saraswati were not included in any of the government schemes despite their poverty.“The condition of two other children of the couple is also not good. I have appealed to the District Collector to shift them to an orphanage for proper care,” he added.
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