Two set of parents in India, who had their new-borns swapped at birth, have chosen to keep the child they raised instead of biological ones.

The unthinkable happened to a Bodo (tribal) family and a Muslim family in Assam, northeast India on March 11, 2015.

Two babies born in Darrang district’s Mangaldoi Civil Hospital, one to a Bodo family and the other to a Muslim family, got swapped. Within days of taking the babies home, both the set of parents began suspecting that the babies were not theirs. However, it took them almost three years to establish this.

Both the parents then filed a joint petition in the district court asking the court to allow them to exchange the babies. On January 4, 2017, they tried parting ways with the babies, on court’s order. But both the boys kept clinging to their mothers.

Mutual agreement

Seeing this, the families mutually decided against the exchange. Now they will not exchange them and will bring them up as their own sons.

Anil Boro, father of the exchanged baby, says he has no regrets. “Now I have two sons and a daughter. It is up to him where he wants to stay once he is grown up”.

The second father, Shahabuddin Ahmed, said despite his efforts, his wife insisted that the child they brought home from hospital wasn’t theirs.

“She also mentioned that it might be the baby of the Bodo lady who delivered a boy the same day,” he said.

This is when the search began, leading to discovery of truth and a reconciliation.