Granny kills 20-day-old baby girl

In yet another incident reflective of society’s attitude towards girl child, a 20-day-old baby girl was allegedly killed by her grandmother in Ghaziabad as she wanted a boy.

According to police sources, Sheela Devi, 55-year-old, allegedly strangled Soumya and then dumped her body into a drain with the help of her younger son Rajesh in the wee hours of Saturday.

To hide her crime, Sheela Devi raised an alarm saying that two masked men abducted her granddaughter. The family members registered a case at Indirapuram police station.The body of the infant was recovered from the drain, a few metres away from their house.

Police suspected some foul play. “Devi could not say how the abductors looked like and how were they able to enter the house”, a police official said.

During sustained interrogation, Sheela Devi admitted her crime. She told police she wanted a grandson and had been very disappointed when the girl was born. “I did not like the girl. I wanted a boy”, Sheela Devi said.

The girl’s parents had no idea about what was going on within Sheela Devi’s mind. Both Sheela Devi and Rajesh have been arrested and a case of murder had been registered against them.

Female foeticide is rampant in the state, especially the western UP districts as a result of which the sex ratio has declined sharply. According to the 2011 census the sex ratio in many of these districts was much lower in comparison to eastern UP.

For the age group of 0-6, the sex ratio was 850:1000 in Meerut, 858:1000 in Muzaffarnagar, 850:1000 in Ghaziabad and 845:1000 in Gautam Buddha Nagar.

The census data reveals that while the situation in the western UP is grim, some districts in eastern UP are doing commendable job in curbing the practice of female foeticide.

Not only the baby girls but also the women giving them birth have been killed in the state. Recently, a woman had been strangled to death by her husband after she had given birth to their fifth female child.

Incidents of wives being killed or thrown out of the house after they gave birth to girl chid have been reported from many parts of the state in the past few months. It indicates that the girls are still considered to be a curse.