A new-born baby girl has been found buried alive in northern India according to a local police chief.
Abhinandan Singh told the reporters that the baby was discovered by a villager who was burying his own daughter, who died minutes after birth. The baby girl was rushed to hospital after she was placed inside an earthen pot about 3ft (90cm) below the ground.
“As they were digging a grave for her, at a depth of three feet, the spade hit an earthen pot, which was pulled out. There was a baby lying in it Mr Singh explained.
“The police took the baby to the city hospital where she is getting treatment and have now launched an investigation into the incident.”
“We are trying to find the parents of the baby, and we suspect that this must have happened with their consent,” Mr Singh told reporters in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
India’s gender ratio is said to be one of the worst in the world. Women are often discriminated and are seen as a financial burden, particularly among poor communities.
Campaigners have said that a traditional preference for sons has meant that millions of female children have lost foeticide and infanticide throughout the years.
Although most unwanted female foetuses are aborted with help from illegal sex determination clinics, there have been cases where baby girls are being killed after birth.
