Prime Minister Stands Beside Akhi, Who Had Thought of Selling Her Unborn Child Out of Poverty, Hands Over Tk 1 Lakh Cheque

'Akhi wants to sell her unborn child' — a report under that headline was recently published in the media. It laid bare the helplessness of a pregnant woman named Akhi: she is about to become a mother for the third time, her husband is ill, and driven by poverty she had thought of 'selling' her unborn child. That report eventually came to the attention of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

On the very day the report was published, the Prime Minister considered the matter on humanitarian grounds. He directed his Additional Press Secretary Atiqur Rahman Rumon to find out about the family. The search for Akhi and her family began right after that instruction.

The search did not take long. Within just one hour, contact was made with the family, and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman himself enquired about their overall situation. From a newspaper report to contact from the highest level of the state within an hour — for the family, it was entirely unexpected.

The enquiries revealed the full picture of the family's hardship. Akhi's husband, the family's only earning member, has been suffering from illness for a long time. Meeting the costs of his treatment and the household expenses, the family has become burdened with debt.

It was in a desperate attempt to repay that debt that Akhi felt compelled to think of the difficult and heartbreaking decision of 'selling' her unborn child. A mother thinking such thoughts as her third child approaches shows just how deep the family's financial crisis had become.

On learning of the matter, Tarique Rahman took the initiative to stand beside the family. The initiative did not stop at enquiries; a decision was taken to give the family direct assistance.

As part of that, Akhi and her family were invited to the Prime Minister's Office last Sunday. There, a cheque for Tk 1 lakh was handed over to the family. The cash assistance is expected to help ease the family's immediate pressure.

Alongside the cheque, the family received two more assurances. All costs of the childbirth will be borne, so the family does not have to worry about money for the coming delivery. An assurance of employment was also given, so that a lasting source of income can be created for the family.

An ailing husband, a burden of debt and a baby on the way — faced with those three pressures, the family that had been forced to think of selling a child has now been offered at least a different path by this step from the Prime Minister's Office. If the certainty over delivery costs and the employment assurance are implemented, the family will have a chance to overcome its long-term crisis.

The family now waits for those assurances to be implemented. If employment is arranged and responsibility for all delivery costs is taken, Akhi's family will be able to try to gradually climb out of its burden of debt — and the story of a mother's helplessness that made the headlines may then turn into a story of recovery.