TOI reader Shailendra Uniyal sent us these pictures. He wrote: I was on my way to Meher Chand market around 9.45 am on September 7 (Monday). I turned right from Lodhi Road on to Second Avenue and noticed that the pavements on either side of the road were being rebuilt. On the left pavement was this toddler, alone and licking and trying to eat a slipper that was lying there. I was shocked.

I stopped and called out to one of the women on the other side of the road.She turned out to be the mother. She walked over to where the baby was, took the slipper from his hands and threw it away. After which she left the child and went away. I guess she had no choice… Till then I was in the car.

When I got down to see if there was a contractor or supervisor who I could talk to, I noticed that the baby was trying to crawl but couldn’t move. That’s when I noticed that one of the baby’s legs had been tied to a stone. It was horrible to imagine that any passerby could step on his little hands or a stray animal could bite and seriously hurt the helpless child. It’s tragic that the government has crores of rupees to build these pavements and roads, but no money to arrange for a creche for these working mothers.​

I didn’t know how to react or what to say to the baby’s mother. So I just took some pictures and walked around to see if a contractor or supervisor was around. I found him in a group sitting a few hundred metres away and asked him if he had noticed the way the child was kept on the footpath and why there wasn’t an arrangement for a mobile creche for working mothers. He didn’t say much and promised he would look into it.

Through the day I couldn’t get the image of the child out of my mind. So on my way back from a meeting, I came back to the same road to see if he was still tied up there. But, he wasn’t there any more. He was with his mother on the other side…she was crouched on the pavement picking big stones with one hand, and holding on to the child with the other.

Source:  The Times Of India