Residents of New Town CE Block and police helped an out-of-work building caretaker's wife, holed up in an under construction structure in the neighbourhood, reach a hospital in time for her delivery on Sunday night.

Pradyut Sarkar used to run a tea stall near Greenfield Heights, a cluster of buildings popularly called 18 Tola. About six months ago, he got a job as a caretaker in an under-construction building. Recently he was terminated. He got a job offer in another building but because of the lockdown that also was withdrawn. Having nowhere to go, he stayed put in the building. “We were distributing rations among 30 impoverished families in the area when we came upon Pradyot’s pregnant wife Kabita Sutar Sarkar,” said Paulami Roy, a member of the social welfare organisation Cenergy who stays in CE Block.

Paulomi called fellow Cenergy member and neighbour Anindita Roy, who is a nursing instructor. “She pointed out on checking her prescriptions that she was due for delivery that very day. But Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital informed Pradyot that it was not in a position to admit her. When they had no money for food, how could he could approach a private nursing home and that too for a C-section, as she had had two miscarriages earlier?” Paulami said.

Doctor neighbour Sritama Sanyal came forward with contacts in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. But there was no transport to take her there. A police officer residing in the block informed New Town police station IC Atanu Ghoshal who in turn contacted assistant commissioner of police, Bidhannagar Commissionerate, Sambiti Chakraborty. “She sent a Sahayak Yan taxi to ferry them free to the hospital where the emergency department was already expecting their arrival. The husband is from Nadia and did not know his way around, so his mother-in-law came from a village near Aquatica,” said Paulami.

The effort of half a dozen people bore fruit when at 2am that night a daughter was born to Kabita. “A doctor sent us a picture of mother and daughter,” Paulami smiled.

The next night the father was stuck at the hospital amid the rain. Police helped ferry him back to New Town.

The residents are now asking around for infant clothes from neighbours. “But our biggest worry is where to put them up as a new born should not stay in unhygienic conditions,” she pointed out.