Mom arrested for killing baby
08/02/2006 11:36  - (SA)  

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New Delhi - A woman has been arrested for strangling her daughter at a hospital in the Indian capital.

Pammi Devi was arrested on Tuesday after the police confirmed that she strangled her two-day-old daughter on February 3.

Devi, who has two sons, told the police that after giving birth to a girl she was concerned about her education and other expenses and decided to kill her.

The police said the woman had been threatened by her in-laws and husband that he would divorce her if she gave birth to a girl.

The woman came to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences from her home town in the eastern state of Bihar to get treated for a heart ailment.

As she was pregnant, the institute, which is one of India's premier research hospitals, admitted her and she delivered a healthy baby girl on February 1.

On February 3, a nurse on duty noticed the girl was not breathing and had finger marks on the neck, the police said. A post-mortem confirmed strangulation.

Girls seen as burdens

When the police questioned the mother, she first feigned ignorance and then broke down and admitted she had strangled her daughter.

Traditionally girls are seen as burdens in large sections of Indian society, as huge dowries have to be paid for their weddings.

There are reports of several cases of female infanticide every year and recently more cases of female foeticide aided by modern technology that can tell the gender of the foetus.

India's skewed gender ratio indicates the severity of the problem. According to the decennial census, last carried out in 2001, the ratio for six-year-olds and below fell from 945 females per 1 000 males in 1991 to 927 in 2001, one of the lowest in the world.

Recent data from India's birth and death registration service suggests that this has fallen even further to fewer than 900 females to 1 000 men over the past couple of years.

If nature were left to run its course, according to Indian population experts, the ratio of females to males would be 952 to 1 000.

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