Hardoi:
In yet another tragic incident, a baby girl was found abandoned near a railway track in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.
Sub Inspector S K Singh found the baby girl on the railway tracks and took her to the government hospital where she was admitted.
"I saw the baby girl lying near the railway track when I had gone for a morning walk. She was alive and crying," he said.
The doctors treating the baby have said she is doing fine. The girl has been named Maanvi by the hospital staff that is taking care of her.
Investigations are on to determine where the baby came from.
This is one among many such incidents where newborn girls have been found abandoned.
In Noida, two cases of newborn girls being abandoned came to light this month. A three-year-old baby was found near a bus stand, while another baby girl was left at the roadside.
In Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district a severely malnourished baby girl was left behind by her mother and grandmother at a hospital.
In a shocking case which perhaps lays bare the discriminatory attitude towards girls, two couples fought over a baby boy, while a newborn baby girl was rejected outright by her mother. The hospital staff had swapped the baby girl for a baby boy who was born at the same time. Later, when they tried to rectify this, the girl's mother refused to accept her. The baby girl was finally taken home after a DNA test was performed and her parentage determined.
These few cases point to a bigger problem which years of education and empowerment still fail to correct. These unwanted girls just highlight the painful fact that even though the country has come a long way, it still has a long way to go before society overcomes the gender barrier.