Undeterred, mother says she will be back at sit-in site soon
Four-month-old, Mohammed Jahaan, who used to go at Shaheen Bagh demonstration with her mother daily, died last week after acquiring severe cold and congestion following exposure to the winter chill at the outdoor demonstration site. His mother is, however, undeterred and determined to participate in the protests, saying it is for the future of her children.
The infant’s parents, Mohammed Arif and Nazia, live in a tiny shanty put together with plastic sheets and cloth in Batla House area and have two other children — a five-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.
Hailing from Bareilly in UP, the couple is barely able to make ends meet. Arif is an embroidery worker and also drives an e-rickshaw. His wife helps him in his embroidery work.
“I haven’t been able to earn enough in the last month despite driving the battery rickshaw in addition to my embroidery work. Now with our baby’s demise, we have lost everything,” he said, showing a picture of little Jahaan wearing a woolen cap that read ‘I Love My India’.
A visibly disturbed Nazia said Jahaan passed away in his sleep on night of January 30 after returning from the protests.
“I had returned from Shaheen Baag at around 1 AM. After putting him and other kids to sleep, even I went to sleep. In the morning, I suddenly found him motionless. He was gone in his sleep,” she said.
The couple took their motionless baby to the nearby Alshifa Hospital on the morning of January 31 where he was declared dead on arrival.
Nazia, who had been visiting the Shaheen Bagh demonstration everyday with Jahaan since December 18, says that he died after catching a cold that turned lethal.
She said she didn’t realise that his congestion was so severe. However, the doctors in the baby’s death certificate have not mentioned any specific reason for the death.
Nazia said she strongly feels that the CAA and NRC are against the welfare of all communities and will join the Shaheen Bagh protests, but this time without her children.
Arif, however, blamed the NRC and CAA for his child’s death. “Had the government not brought CAA and NRC, people would not have protested and my wife would not have joined them, my son would have been alive,” he said.