Teen gives birth in C'garh hostel, superintendent suspended

A probe has been ordered and one person was placed under suspension after a 19-year-old unmarried girl staying in a tribal students' hostel in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district delivered a stillborn child, a senior official said on Sunday.

The girl, a resident of neighbouring Bastar district, gave birth in the hostel in Pataras village on January 17 and was later admitted in a hospital here, Dantewada Collector Topeshwar Verma said.

"It was a stillbirth. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident after the district administration was alerted by the tribal department. Based on preliminary findings, hostel superintendent Hemlata Nag has been suspended," he told PTI.

Verma said the girl, a Class XI student, had taken admission in an English medium school in Pataras in August last year and was staying in a tribal girls' hostel.

Deputy Collector Preeti Durgam, who is heading the probe, said the girl had informed she was in a relationship with a boy from her village, though this was yet to be confirmed.

It is also being probed as to how the hostel staff did not know about the pregnancy despite the girl completing the full term, Durgam added.