Kids should live playfully and not die like this: Bhandara Fire victim's father

After 14 years of marriage and giving birth to three stillborn foetuses, Hirkanya Bhanarkar (39) had finally conceived and given birth to a girl on January 6, only to lost her in the fire at the Bhandara hospital in Maharashtra on Saturday.

"Such thing should not happen to anyone....Children should live and should be playing," Hirkanya's husband Hiralal Bhanarkar told reporters outside Akoli Public Health Centre (PHC) in Bhandara district on Sunday night while struggling to suppress his wails.

The detached words of Hiralal sounded like he was hysterical and was struggling to regain his composure, natural for a man who eagerly waited for his bundle of joy for 14 long years, and when he was yearning to caress the baby girl, she is gone for ever.

Hirkanya, who is currently admitted in the PHC, is too dazed to speak.

"She is in deep shock", a nurse told a news channel.

The labourer couple hails from Usgaon village in Sakoli tehsil of Bhandara district.

Hirkanya gave birth to a girl on January 6 at the Sakoli sub-district hospital.

"However, as the girl was born premature in the seventh month of Hirkanya's pregnancy and underweight, she was shifted to the Special Newborn Care Unit of Bhandara district hospital on the same day," the nurse said.

According to her, the poor couple didn't have a toilet at their house, which was the cause of the girl's premature birth.

"The mother fell down while she was attending a nature's call, which led to the premature delivery. Had it not been for this accident, the girl would have born healthy after two months," she said.

Besides the daughter of the Bhanarkars, nine other babies perished in the fire that broke out on early hours of Saturday at the Special Newborn Care Unit of the four-storeyed district hospital.