Yet another new life was welcomed in a Shramik Special train when a passenger, who had been stranded in Telangana, gave birth to a baby boy on Friday morning.
Nineteen-year-old Meena Kumbhar from Thodibahal village under Belpara Tehsil of Balangir district delivered the baby on the train that was running from Telangana’s Lingampali to Balangir. The train reportedly arrived at Titilagarh at 5:40 am.
After a thorough checkup at a railway health unit in Titilagarh, doctors declared both mother and her newborn healthy. Later, on the direction of the Assistant Divisional Medical Officer (ADMO), both of them were shifted to the local Sub-Divisional Hospital through the Janani ambulance service.
Notably, this was the third delivery case in a Shramik Special train under the jurisdiction of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) as well as in Odisha. Incidentally, all three deliveries took place in Balangir district. By now, 37 babies have been born in Shramik Special trains in the country in the Covid-19 situation.
Meanwhile, the ECoR has decided to sponsor gifts or cash to the children born on board Shramik Special trains on its network in an effort to support the new mothers.
The effort would be completely voluntary by ECoR officers, the first such sponsorship having come from ECoR General Manager Vidya Bhushan himself, who sent Rs 5,000 to the mother of the child born on Friday.
Other senior ECoR officials have volunteered to sponsor gift items in subsequent cases, if any.