UP Baby Girl, Stuffed In 3 Gunny Bags And Left To Die, Is "Much Better"

A baby girl was found stuffed inside three gunny bags on the side of a road in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, just 85 kilometres from Delhi. The infant, left to die in the cold apparently by her parents, is in hospital and recovering.

The newborn was found reportedly when people heard her wails and, to their horror, discovered her bundled in layers of sacks.

A gut-wrenching video shows passers by remove the sacks one by one to reveal the crying infant. "What kind of parents can do such a thing," a woman is heard saying in the clip.

The people called the police, who rushed her to a local hospital.

The baby is healthy and is being treated, said the police.

"When they brought the baby she was in very bad shape, her placenta was attached to her body and there was a rotting smell. We sent her to the newborn care unit. She is in a much better condition," said Manisha Agarwal, the doctor in charge at the District Women's Hospital, Meerut.

The doctor said managing the baby's temperature was critical. "She was thrown out in the open and this can affect her . It is very important for her to have mother's milk within an hour of delivery. This must not have been given to her . This is harmful for her , we are doing our best to treat her," Dr Agarwal said.

The police said they received a call from local people who found the baby.

"We got a call from a locality called Shatabdi Nagar that a newborn was found. A police team went there and the baby has been admitted to the district women's hospital. She is being given proper medical treatment and doctors say she is a premature baby but healthy. All SOPs are being followed," police officer Dr Akhilesh Narayan Singh said.

Despite the government's awareness programmes to promote gender equality, female infanticide is still a grim reality in the country. Scores of girl children are found abandoned every year, often left to die.

Last year a baby girl was found inside a large earthen pot buried three feet under a cremation ground in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly.

Dr Agarwal said: "This is a female child, whoever is the mother, I cannot say why she threw away the baby but I do feel that if this was a male child the mother would not throw it away . The mother may have thought of the child as a burden -- this mentality needs to change."