Newborn survives after being buried alive in shallow grave

A newborn girl miraculously survived being buried alive in a shallow grave in India in a suspected case of female infanticide.

The baby girl was placed inside a traditional earthen pot and buried about 3 feet below ground — and found when another villager dug down to bury his stillborn daughter, according to the Independent.

“At one point I thought that my daughter had come alive. But the voice was actually coming from inside the pot,” Hitesh Kumar said of his shocking discovery in the burial area in Bareilly on Thursday, according to the Independent, citing local reports.

A Bareilly police officer, who didn’t want to be identified, said the baby looked to be about 5 days old.

“They immediately called the cemetery guard, who said that he saw the parents there earlier,” he said. “It seems to be a case of female infanticide.”

The newborn, weighing just 2.4 pounds and found wrapped in a cloth and crying, was raced to the Special Newborn Care unit of the Maharana Pratap District Hospital.

Doctors believe she may have been there a short time and survived because her tiny size meant she needed little oxygen, according to the report.

“We are trying to find the parents of the baby and we suspect that this must have happened with their consent,” police chief Abhinandan Singh told reporters.

India has seen a decreasing number of girls, according to a government survey released in July, suggesting that illegal abortions of female fetuses continue despite a ban and government efforts to save girls. Girls are considered an expensive burden for families who have to pay dowries when they marry.

via: https://nypost.com/2019/10/14/newborn-survives-after-being-buried-alive-in-shallow-grave/

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