Baby rented out to beggars for $2.95

When Anamika Joshi came home from work in the evening, she could not understand why her seven-month-old son was so drowsy and lethargic. Then one day she came home early to discover her child missing and the nanny she had employed to look after him casually watching television.

Confronting the hired help, Mrs Joshi was told a story she could scarcely believe. The nanny had been drugging her son and hiring him out to beggars as a prop for 100 rupees (NZ$2.95) a day.

"What my baby was put through sends shivers down my spine. I can't imagine what would have happened if I had not returned home early that day," Mrs Joshi told reporters in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

After their son was born, Mrs Joshi and her husband had hired a nanny so she could go back to her job as a consultant with a multinational company.

But now they have reverted to tradition: she told the Deccan Chronicle that her parents-in-law are moving in with them to care for the infant.

"I love my baby and I will never put him in such a situation again," she insisted.

- INDEPENDENT