In a heartbreaking case, a girl-baby, merely 4-days old was killed by her father and grandmother, as they were irked over the birth of the fourth girl child in their house.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/donald-trump-honours-indian-girl-for-gesture-towards-coronavirus-heroes-299385" hreflang="en">Donald Trump honours Indian girl for gesture towards coronavirus heroes</a>

Thavamani and Chitra are residents of Chozhavandhan in Madurai and the couple have three daughters. It was only last week that the Chitra had given birth to a baby girl at the primary health center in what was a normal delivery.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/mask-of-stars-in-cinema-crazy-tamil-nadu-protective-masks-get-a-filmy-face-299377" hreflang="en">Mask of stars: In cinema-crazy Tamil Nadu protective masks get a filmy face</a>

Few days later the family claimed that the baby had died of some unknown illness and a hushed burial was conducted at a graveyard in Mutputhur. The circumstances surrounding the death, barely four days after the infant was born, led to suspicion among the neighbors who tipped off the Police.&nbsp;

The police, district officials and a medical team visited the site and exhumed the mortal remains to perform tests. It was then made clear that the baby was poisoned.&nbsp;

The cops have arrested the girl’s father Thavamani and grandmother Pandiyammal. Initially, the father and grandmother pleaded innocence and tried to mislead the investigation, but eventually they budged and confessed to the crime. The crime is said to have been perpetrated without the knowledge of the baby’s mother, that too at a time when she was away.

The father and Grandmother have been booked under Sections 201(causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 302 (whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life) of the IPC. The sections pertaining to female infanticide also would be added.&nbsp;

Earlier in March, a similar incident of female infanticide had been reported from Madurai.

In a heartbreaking case, a girl-baby, merely 4-days old was killed by her father and grandmother, as they were irked over the birth of the fourth girl child in their house.

In a heartbreaking case, a girl-baby, merely 4-days old was killed by her father and grandmother, as they were irked over the birth of the fourth girl child in their house. Also read: Donald Trump honours Indian girl for gesture towards coronavirus heroes Thavamani and Chitra are residents of Chozhavandhan in Madurai and the couple have three daughters. It was only last week that the Chitra had given birth to a baby girl at the primary health center in what was a normal delivery. Also read: Mask of stars: In cinema-crazy Tamil Nadu protective masks get a filmy face Few days later the family claimed that the baby had died of some unknown illness and a hushed burial was conducted at a graveyard in Mutputhur. The circumstances surrounding the death, barely four days after the infant was born, led to suspicion among the neighbors who tipped off the Police. The police, district officials and a medical team visited the site and exhumed the mortal remains to perform tests. It was then made clear that the baby was poisoned. The cops have arrested the girl’s father Thavamani and grandmother Pandiyammal. Initially, the father and grandmother pleaded innocence and tried to mislead the investigation, but eventually they budged and confessed to the crime. The crime is said to have been perpetrated without the knowledge of the baby’s mother, that too at a time when she was away. The father and Grandmother have been booked under Sections 201(causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 302 (whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life) of the IPC. The sections pertaining to female infanticide also would be added. Earlier in March, a similar incident of female infanticide had been reported from Madurai.

Father, grandmother held in female infanticide case in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai

Hundreds of dead babies have been found dumped in Pakistan in the last year, news reports said Wednesday. &nbsp

Since the beginning of 2017, a total of 345 newbornds have been found dumped in Karachi. 99 per cent of the babies were girls.&nbsp

In the most horrific cases, the reports said, a four-day-old girl was found with her throat slit.&nbsp

Another newborn baby left on the steps of a mosque was stoned to death after a cleric assumed it was an "illegitimate baby".&nbsp

Like India, Pakistan suffers from a massive problem of female infanticide.&nbsp

Boys are preferred to girls because men are seen as wage earners&nbspand for a number of other societal reasons.&nbsp

Infanticide is a crime in Pakistan but the news reports quote police as blaming poverty and illiteracy for the continuation of the practice.&nbsp

The reports also quoted police as saying a crime can only be investigated if there has been a complaint but that in the last one year, there has only been one complaint&nbspabout infanticide in Karachi, a city of 15 million people.&nbsp

Since the beginning of 2017, 345 dead babies have been found dumped in Karachi. 99 per cent of the newborns were girls

Hundreds of dead babies have been found dumped in Pakistan in the last year, news reports said Wednesday. Since the beginning of 2017, a total of 345 newbornds have been found dumped in Karachi. 99 per cent of the babies were girls. In the most horrific cases, the reports said, a four-day-old girl was found with her throat slit. Another newborn baby left on the steps of a mosque was stoned to death after a cleric assumed it was an "illegitimate baby". Like India, Pakistan suffers from a massive problem of female infanticide. Boys are preferred to girls because men are seen as wage earners&nbspand for a number of other societal reasons. Infanticide is a crime in Pakistan but the news reports quote police as blaming poverty and illiteracy for the continuation of the practice. The reports also quoted police as saying a crime can only be investigated if there has been a complaint but that in the last one year, there has only been one complaint&nbspabout infanticide in Karachi, a city of 15 million people.

Hundreds of dead baby girls found dumped in Pakistan

A deep-seated cultural preference for boys appears to be prevalent in Pakistan's Karachi.

According to local media reports, hundreds of dead bodies of newborns have been recovered from garbage piles across Pakistan in the last few months.

A report in The News International said, "From January 2017 to April 2018, Edhi foundation and Chhipa Welfare organisation have found 345 such new born babies dumped in garbage in Karachi only and 99 percent of them were girls."

In February, a case was reported from Karachi's Edhi Center, wherein a 4-day-old girl was found dead with her throat slit.

Chhipa Welfare Foundation said that they came across 93 such cases in Karachi. Of them, seventy cases were reported in 2017, while 23 this year.

In another barbaric incident, a newborn was reportedly stoned to death by a Karachi-based cleric.

"A few people found a baby at the doorstep of a mosque in Karachi and they handed the baby over to the prayer leader. The cleric decried that this is an 'illegitimate baby' and he should be stoned. Resultantly, the baby was stoned to death," The News International quoted Anwar Kazmi, a senior manager at Edhi Foundation Karachi, as saying.

He further informed that he tried to register a case against the cleric but no action was taken.

Kazmi informed that usually, kids born out of wedlocks were abandoned and that girls were targeted more than the boys due to some social stigma.

As per the news piece, the police investigations in cases of female infanticide were not strong enough. Firstly, people refrained themselves from reporting such incidents to the law enforcing authorities and secondly, those cases were avoided. The laws to prevent crimes against infants were often violated.

The article also quoted an Oxford Institute of Population Ageing study, which found that couples in Pakistan bore children until they had the desired number of sons and daughters.

The research showed that the family planning decisions in the country were more favourable to boys as sons were perceived more valuable than daughters.

Hundreds of dead bodies of newborns have been recovered from garbage piles across Pakistan in the last few months

A deep-seated cultural preference for boys appears to be prevalent in Pakistan's Karachi. According to local media reports, hundreds of dead bodies of newborns have been recovered from garbage piles across Pakistan in the last few months. A report in The News International said, "From January 2017 to April 2018, Edhi foundation and Chhipa Welfare organisation have found 345 such new born babies dumped in garbage in Karachi only and 99 percent of them were girls." In February, a case was reported from Karachi's Edhi Center, wherein a 4-day-old girl was found dead with her throat slit. Chhipa Welfare Foundation said that they came across 93 such cases in Karachi. Of them, seventy cases were reported in 2017, while 23 this year. In another barbaric incident, a newborn was reportedly stoned to death by a Karachi-based cleric. "A few people found a baby at the doorstep of a mosque in Karachi and they handed the baby over to the prayer leader. The cleric decried that this is an 'illegitimate baby' and he should be stoned. Resultantly, the baby was stoned to death," The News International quoted Anwar Kazmi, a senior manager at Edhi Foundation Karachi, as saying. He further informed that he tried to register a case against the cleric but no action was taken. Kazmi informed that usually, kids born out of wedlocks were abandoned and that girls were targeted more than the boys due to some social stigma. As per the news piece, the police investigations in cases of female infanticide were not strong enough. Firstly, people refrained themselves from reporting such incidents to the law enforcing authorities and secondly, those cases were avoided. The laws to prevent crimes against infants were often violated. The article also quoted an Oxford Institute of Population Ageing study, which found that couples in Pakistan bore children until they had the desired number of sons and daughters. The research showed that the family planning decisions in the country were more favourable to boys as sons were perceived more valuable than daughters.

Karachi's struggle with female infanticide

&quot;The day I was born, my father tried to bury me alive,&quot; Manju Singh tells me. &quot;The moment he knew he&#39;d had a daughter, he charged into the windowless room in which my mother had delivered me and started digging a hole in the mud floor. The umbilical cord had just been cut. My maternal grandmother scooped me up and fled.&quot;

Sitting before a wood stove in her outdoor kitchen in Haryana, Singh is cooking breakfast. It&#39;s winter, around dawn, and the 35-year-old mother of two speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, not allowing her narrative to interrupt the rapid motion of her rolling pin. The year is 2012 and there&#39;s bad news from India&rsquo;s just-published Census report: the number of girls born, compared to boys, has fallen drastically between 2001 and 2011&ndash; from 927 to 919.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/02-manju-in-the-kitchen-and-cooking-the-bread.width-1440-20171128070633.jpg" />
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&lsquo;That I lived is nothing short of a miracle,&rsquo; Manju says while cooking on a wood stove (Others)
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&quot;That I lived is nothing short of a miracle,&quot; Manju continues. &quot;My mother had to fight hard to keep me alive. Even while I was growing up my father tried several times to kill me. He&#39;d beat me to pulp. But somehow, I lived through it all. I was just that stubborn.&quot; She laughs.

For generations, no girl child in Singh&rsquo;s family in Sadikpur village had been allowed to live. When she was 10, Manju&rsquo;s father told her that he had watched his sister being buried alive by his father. Killing new-born female progeny was a family &lsquo;tradition&rsquo;. The strictly &lsquo;sons only&rsquo; policy was implemented ruthlessly.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/03-manjus-village-milestone-sc-manju-fights-t.width-1440-20171128070755.jpg" />
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A milestone on the way to Manju&rsquo;s village, Sadikpur (Others)
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What happened in Singh&#39;s family over generations was not an isolated instance. Female infanticide &ndash; an unfortunate confluence of culture and economics &ndash; was practiced in some parts of India for centuries. The methods varied from region to region, but all were equally macabre &ndash; feeding the baby grain husk to slit her windpipe, a morsel of rice to choke her, tobacco juice to poison her. Strangulation, starvation, overfeeding, and the fate Manju escaped &ndash; being buried alive &ndash; were also common.

These methods are now rare, though not entirely absent. In 2014, according to National Crime Records Bureau data, 121 cases of infanticide were reported in the country. But female infanticide in India was once widespread enough to necessitate a law against it: the Female Infanticide Prevention Act of 1970. It only succeeded in making the killers more furtive, their crimes harder to detect.

What did nearly eradicate infanticide was ultrasound, a technology that came to India in the late 1980s. With ultrasound imaging techniques, parents could identify the gender of their child in the womb. Identification services combined with sex-selective abortions at affordable prices mushroomed all over India. Though the practice of infanticide declined, many more girls actually died.

In 1994, India passed the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act to prohibit sex determination during ultrasound. But the Act, as well as an amendment passed in 2003, have been ineffective: India&#39;s ratio of young girls to young boys has slid lower every decade.

Manju is trying to counter this in her corner of Haryana. Breakfast cooked, she is now vigorously working the hand-pump in the courtyard to fill water for her family for the day. She tells me about the traditional rituals that accompanied infanticide in different parts of India:

&quot;In the state of Rajasthan a popular song urges the daughter not to return to this land. They used to sing that after killing the infant. And in Punjab they would place the girl alive in an earthen pot with a lump of jaggery, some gram and raw cotton yarn. Then they buried the pot while chanting &lsquo;Gud khaanyi, punni katti. Aap na aayi, veerey nu kalli&#39; [Eat this jaggery, spin this cotton. Don&#39;t come back. The next time, send your brother instead]&rsquo;.&quot;

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Manju&rsquo;s kids and husband: &lsquo;I love my son too, but my daughter is special&#39; (Others)
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Manju explains: &quot;Gram and jaggery are symbols of celebrating a boy child. And the cotton yarn is what a sister ties on her brother&#39;s wrist to ask for his protection. These male symbols are meant to invoke a son.&quot;

Singh is a health and gender rights advocate in her community in Ambala district; she works (at the time of our meeting) with the Voluntary Health Association of Punjab. She educates village women about preventing the crime her father tried to commit. &quot;I understand women&rsquo;s concerns, the pressures they face. I never preach to them; I try to befriend them. That&#39;s the only way to make change happen,&quot; she says as she winds up her household chores and steps out for the day.

Our first stop is a village meeting. A crowd of women has gathered and a raucous debate is underway. The topic of discussion is the relative &lsquo;merits&rsquo; of sons and daughters. Many women give various reasons for their preference: &quot;Daughters are expensive to bring up. We need to spend on their dowries;&quot; &quot;Sons earn money, they bring dowries. Daughters only take from their families;&quot; &quot;A daughter gets married and goes away but a son is always there to look after you;&quot; &quot;Raising a daughter is like watering a tree in your neighbour&#39;s garden.&quot;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/05-mtg-sc-manju-fights-to-change-the-script.width-1440-20171128070938.jpg" />
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Addressing a meeting, discussing the relative &lsquo;merits&rsquo; of sons and daughters (Others)
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Then a middle-aged woman at the back of the crowd pipes up in a robust tone: &quot;All of you who want only sons, can you tell me who will make the babies? Can men give birth to children? We need girls too. Girls are great! Ask me, I have two daughters.&quot; The air becomes thick with cheers.

But the truth is, there is little cause for cheer. According to Census 2011 data, Haryana has only 834 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group. There aren&#39;t enough girls in the state for young men to marry. Entire villages in Haryana are now devoid of brides. Bachelors are desperate, trying everything from propitiating the gods to buying brides from other states and arm-twisting local politicians to get them brides in exchange for votes.

Says Singh, &quot;When I got married I learned about sex-selective abortion. It was all around me. It was happening in practically every home. Women were under immense pressure to do it. Many of them were undergoing five, six, even 10 abortions in the quest for a son. It&#39;s physical and mental torture. I felt very strongly that I should work with women to try and stop this killing... It was a calling from deep within.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/06-manjus-constituency-is-women-sc-manju-figh.width-1440-20171128071113.jpg" />
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According to Census 2011 data, Haryana has only 834 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group (Others)
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&quot;Even medicine can become a poison if not used correctly,&quot; Singh tells me. &quot;Ultrasound technology was supposed to be used to improve the health of mothers and babies. But society has used it as a killing tool. People are complicit. So are doctors. It&#39;s illegal to reveal the sex of the child and sex-selective abortion is illegal too. But it happens all the time, clinics do this everywhere. And it&#39;s so much easier compared to infanticide that people feel it is okay.&quot;

At the end of a day of trudging from village to village, addressing meetings, gathering data, chatting with pregnant women, and talking to young mothers who&#39;ve just given birth to female children, it&#39;s time for Manju to head home. The sun is setting and there&#39;s a cold wind blowing. Her daughter is back from school and busy preparing for her mother&#39;s arrival. Steaming cups of tea and biscuits await us.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/07-evening-fog-sc-manju-fights-to-change-the-.width-1440-20171128071218.jpg" />
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A cold wind is blowing on the way back to Sadikpur that evening; at Manju&rsquo;s home, her daughter awaits us with steaming cups of tea (Others)
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Ruffling her daughter&#39;s hair, Singh praises her effort and then turns to me and asks, &quot;Do you have a daughter?&quot; &quot;Yes,&quot; I answer. &quot;Then,&quot; she says, &quot;you&#39;ll know what I mean when I say that they are precious. When I was pregnant for the first time, I prayed for a girl. And god&nbsp;heard me. I love my son too, but my daughter is special.&quot;

This <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/manju-fights-to-change-the-script" rel="nofollow" target="blank">article</a> was originally published on 22/03/2016 on the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">People&#39;s Archive of Rural India</a>.

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Image Credit: Svati Chakravarty

Manju Singh is a health and gender rights advocate in her community in Ambala district and educates village women about preventing female infanticide. Her father tried to bury her when she was born but she survived

"The day I was born, my father tried to bury me alive," Manju Singh tells me. "The moment he knew he'd had a daughter, he charged into the windowless room in which my mother had delivered me and started digging a hole in the mud floor. The umbilical cord had just been cut. My maternal grandmother scooped me up and fled." Sitting before a wood stove in her outdoor kitchen in Haryana, Singh is cooking breakfast. It's winter, around dawn, and the 35-year-old mother of two speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, not allowing her narrative to interrupt the rapid motion of her rolling pin. The year is 2012 and there's bad news from India’s just-published Census report: the number of girls born, compared to boys, has fallen drastically between 2001 and 2011– from 927 to 919. ‘That I lived is nothing short of a miracle,’ Manju says while cooking on a wood stove (Others) × "That I lived is nothing short of a miracle," Manju continues. "My mother had to fight hard to keep me alive. Even while I was growing up my father tried several times to kill me. He'd beat me to pulp. But somehow, I lived through it all. I was just that stubborn." She laughs. For generations, no girl child in Singh’s family in Sadikpur village had been allowed to live. When she was 10, Manju’s father told her that he had watched his sister being buried alive by his father. Killing new-born female progeny was a family ‘tradition’. The strictly ‘sons only’ policy was implemented ruthlessly. A milestone on the way to Manju’s village, Sadikpur (Others) × What happened in Singh's family over generations was not an isolated instance. Female infanticide – an unfortunate confluence of culture and economics – was practiced in some parts of India for centuries. The methods varied from region to region, but all were equally macabre – feeding the baby grain husk to slit her windpipe, a morsel of rice to choke her, tobacco juice to poison her. Strangulation, starvation, overfeeding, and the fate Manju escaped – being buried alive – were also common. These methods are now rare, though not entirely absent. In 2014, according to National Crime Records Bureau data, 121 cases of infanticide were reported in the country. But female infanticide in India was once widespread enough to necessitate a law against it: the Female Infanticide Prevention Act of 1970. It only succeeded in making the killers more furtive, their crimes harder to detect. What did nearly eradicate infanticide was ultrasound, a technology that came to India in the late 1980s. With ultrasound imaging techniques, parents could identify the gender of their child in the womb. Identification services combined with sex-selective abortions at affordable prices mushroomed all over India. Though the practice of infanticide declined, many more girls actually died. In 1994, India passed the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act to prohibit sex determination during ultrasound. But the Act, as well as an amendment passed in 2003, have been ineffective: India's ratio of young girls to young boys has slid lower every decade. Manju is trying to counter this in her corner of Haryana. Breakfast cooked, she is now vigorously working the hand-pump in the courtyard to fill water for her family for the day. She tells me about the traditional rituals that accompanied infanticide in different parts of India: "In the state of Rajasthan a popular song urges the daughter not to return to this land. They used to sing that after killing the infant. And in Punjab they would place the girl alive in an earthen pot with a lump of jaggery, some gram and raw cotton yarn. Then they buried the pot while chanting ‘Gud khaanyi, punni katti. Aap na aayi, veerey nu kalli' [Eat this jaggery, spin this cotton. Don't come back. The next time, send your brother instead]’." Manju’s kids and husband: ‘I love my son too, but my daughter is special' (Others) × Manju explains: "Gram and jaggery are symbols of celebrating a boy child. And the cotton yarn is what a sister ties on her brother's wrist to ask for his protection. These male symbols are meant to invoke a son." Singh is a health and gender rights advocate in her community in Ambala district; she works (at the time of our meeting) with the Voluntary Health Association of Punjab. She educates village women about preventing the crime her father tried to commit. "I understand women’s concerns, the pressures they face. I never preach to them; I try to befriend them. That's the only way to make change happen," she says as she winds up her household chores and steps out for the day. Our first stop is a village meeting. A crowd of women has gathered and a raucous debate is underway. The topic of discussion is the relative ‘merits’ of sons and daughters. Many women give various reasons for their preference: "Daughters are expensive to bring up. We need to spend on their dowries;" "Sons earn money, they bring dowries. Daughters only take from their families;" "A daughter gets married and goes away but a son is always there to look after you;" "Raising a daughter is like watering a tree in your neighbour's garden." Addressing a meeting, discussing the relative ‘merits’ of sons and daughters (Others) × Then a middle-aged woman at the back of the crowd pipes up in a robust tone: "All of you who want only sons, can you tell me who will make the babies? Can men give birth to children? We need girls too. Girls are great! Ask me, I have two daughters." The air becomes thick with cheers. But the truth is, there is little cause for cheer. According to Census 2011 data, Haryana has only 834 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group. There aren't enough girls in the state for young men to marry. Entire villages in Haryana are now devoid of brides. Bachelors are desperate, trying everything from propitiating the gods to buying brides from other states and arm-twisting local politicians to get them brides in exchange for votes. Says Singh, "When I got married I learned about sex-selective abortion. It was all around me. It was happening in practically every home. Women were under immense pressure to do it. Many of them were undergoing five, six, even 10 abortions in the quest for a son. It's physical and mental torture. I felt very strongly that I should work with women to try and stop this killing... It was a calling from deep within. According to Census 2011 data, Haryana has only 834 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group (Others) × "Even medicine can become a poison if not used correctly," Singh tells me. "Ultrasound technology was supposed to be used to improve the health of mothers and babies. But society has used it as a killing tool. People are complicit. So are doctors. It's illegal to reveal the sex of the child and sex-selective abortion is illegal too. But it happens all the time, clinics do this everywhere. And it's so much easier compared to infanticide that people feel it is okay." At the end of a day of trudging from village to village, addressing meetings, gathering data, chatting with pregnant women, and talking to young mothers who've just given birth to female children, it's time for Manju to head home. The sun is setting and there's a cold wind blowing. Her daughter is back from school and busy preparing for her mother's arrival. Steaming cups of tea and biscuits await us. A cold wind is blowing on the way back to Sadikpur that evening; at Manju’s home, her daughter awaits us with steaming cups of tea (Others) × Ruffling her daughter's hair, Singh praises her effort and then turns to me and asks, "Do you have a daughter?" "Yes," I answer. "Then," she says, "you'll know what I mean when I say that they are precious. When I was pregnant for the first time, I prayed for a girl. And god heard me. I love my son too, but my daughter is special." This article was originally published on 22/03/2016 on the People's Archive of Rural India. (Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity). Image Credit: Svati Chakravarty

Opinion: Manju fights to change the script

Last week, a night patrol team of Delhi Police received a call about a baby lying in a plastic bag under the Munirka flyover in the RK Puram locality of the city.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The policemen&nbsp;reached the spot, not far from the Munirka bus stop where a 23-year-old paramedical student was gangraped on the fateful night of December 16 in 2012. The incident had sent shockwaves across India.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The baby was immediately taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by Somnath Paruthi, the station house officer (SHO) of the RK Puram police station and his team.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The doctors at AIIMS told Paruthi&nbsp;that she was only two days old. Upon examination, they affirmed the baby girl was healthy with no injuries or infection.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Paruthi and his team bought her formula food, some warm clothes and made sure three of their women colleagues&nbsp;were on duty at the neo-natal intensive care unit. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

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The Delhi police found her wrapped in a plastic bag under the Munrika flyover. She was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital and was declared healthy by doctors. The police named her &#39;Swadha&#39; or &#39;divine approval&#39;. (WION)
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&#39;Divine approval&#39;&nbsp;

The chance spotting of the baby and her miraculous survival on a Delhi pavement prompted the Delhi police to name her &#39;Swadha&#39;, which means &#39;divine approval&#39; in Sanskrit. But in medico-legal parlance, Swadha is referred to as &quot;baby unknown&quot;.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Even as the police have registered a case and are trying to trace the baby&#39;s family, the doctors and nurses looking after Swadha treat her as one of their own. The nurses dote on her, feeding her formula food with a vessel.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&quot;We receive four to five cases of abandoned infants every year,&quot; says Vinod Paul, head of the pediatrics department at AIIMS.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&quot;We&#39;re happy to look after them,&quot; he adds.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The western Indian state of Maharashtra has seen the highest number of cases of abandonment of newborn babies. A total of 1,093 cases were registered between 2011 and 2015.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Preference for sons in many Indian families means that most of the abandoned newborns are girls.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Official statistics reveal that a large number of orphaned children are waiting for homes. In 2015, only 3,011 such children were adopted by Indian parents, according to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Meanwhile, police are getting calls from couples hoping to adopt Swadha. AIIMS will subsequently hand over the baby to the child welfare committee.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&quot;We&#39;re the bridge between police and a home for Swadha,&quot; says Dr Paul.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(WION)&nbsp; 
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Delhi Police are receiving calls from couples hoping to adopt the baby. She was found abandoned in a plastic bag

Last week, a night patrol team of Delhi Police received a call about a baby lying in a plastic bag under the Munirka flyover in the RK Puram locality of the city. The policemen reached the spot, not far from the Munirka bus stop where a 23-year-old paramedical student was gangraped on the fateful night of December 16 in 2012. The incident had sent shockwaves across India. The baby was immediately taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by Somnath Paruthi, the station house officer (SHO) of the RK Puram police station and his team. The doctors at AIIMS told Paruthi that she was only two days old. Upon examination, they affirmed the baby girl was healthy with no injuries or infection. Paruthi and his team bought her formula food, some warm clothes and made sure three of their women colleagues were on duty at the neo-natal intensive care unit. The Delhi police found her wrapped in a plastic bag under the Munrika flyover. She was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital and was declared healthy by doctors. The police named her 'Swadha' or 'divine approval'. (WION) × 'Divine approval' The chance spotting of the baby and her miraculous survival on a Delhi pavement prompted the Delhi police to name her 'Swadha', which means 'divine approval' in Sanskrit. But in medico-legal parlance, Swadha is referred to as "baby unknown". Even as the police have registered a case and are trying to trace the baby's family, the doctors and nurses looking after Swadha treat her as one of their own. The nurses dote on her, feeding her formula food with a vessel. "We receive four to five cases of abandoned infants every year," says Vinod Paul, head of the pediatrics department at AIIMS. "We're happy to look after them," he adds. The western Indian state of Maharashtra has seen the highest number of cases of abandonment of newborn babies. A total of 1,093 cases were registered between 2011 and 2015. Preference for sons in many Indian families means that most of the abandoned newborns are girls. Official statistics reveal that a large number of orphaned children are waiting for homes. In 2015, only 3,011 such children were adopted by Indian parents, according to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). Meanwhile, police are getting calls from couples hoping to adopt Swadha. AIIMS will subsequently hand over the baby to the child welfare committee. "We're the bridge between police and a home for Swadha," says Dr Paul. (WION)

India: Abandoned baby girl in Delhi gets new lease of life

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