Rajasthan: Pregnant Woman Turned Away By Doctor Because She’s Muslim, Loses Baby

What should have been her happiest day, turned into the worst nightmare for a Muslim woman in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district after she was refused admission into a government hospital by its staff citing her religion. The woman after leaving the hospital delivered the child inside the ambulance but the just born could not survive.

In a video testimony, the woman’s husband Irfan Khan said “that her wife had to deliver a child. We were referred from Sikri to the Zanana Hospital in the district headquarter but the doctors here mentioned that we should go to Jaipur because we are Muslim. As I was taking her in the ambulance, she delivered the child but the baby died. I hold the administration responsible for my child’s death”.

Vishvendra Singh, Rajasthan’s tourism minister, lashed out at the refusal of the doctor because of the woman’s religion and termed it as a shameful act, which needs to be punished.

Singh tweeted a video in which he stated that the woman was referred to the Zanana Hospital in Bharatpur where she was refused admission by a doctor named Dr Moneet Walia.

Referring to the Tablighi Jamaat, Singh further added that, “the jamaat most certainly has been hazardous to the entire country. However, it does not mean that citizens of the Islamic faith are treated the way a pregnant lady was handled by the doctors in Bharatpur Zenana Hospital. The local MLA is also the Minister of State for Health,” he said.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi also condemned the incident. Tweeting a testimony from the husband, Owaisi wrote, “The staff must be tried & punished as common criminals & should receive exemplary punishment. They are responsible for the death of an innocent woman. Should we now stop seeking healthcare? Anti-Muslim hate reaches new heights every day & is costing us our lives.”

Confirming that the woman had come to the hospital for delivery, Dr Rupendra Jha, Principal, Zanana Hospital, Bharatpur, said that whatever laxity happened will be investigated.