A shocking video has emerged, showing the moment Indian police rescued a baby girl who was being buried alive by her family.
Footage captured on a mobile phone shows the moment police confront a man holding a baby wrapped in a blanket while another man digs a hole nearby with his bare hands.
Officials have since confirmed that officers had confronted the baby’s grandfather who was attempting to bury the infant in wasteland in Hyderabad.
An unnamed police officer told NDTV:
This morning, an auto driver at the Jubilee bus stand ground noticed two persons with a bag in their hand. They were digging a pit in the ground.
Looking at the scene the auto driver immediately reported about the incident to police.
The two men are said to have told officers the baby had died, however the police, who had been tipped off by a taxi driver, said they saw the baby moving underneath the blanket.
Both men were detained by police and later released while the baby girl is still undergoing treatment in hospital as the investigation continues to unfold.
Other outlets reported how another officer said the family had believed the baby had died and were told not to bring the body home. Police said they were just pleased the baby had been rescued.
The killing of baby girls is a continuing problem in India, where they are seen as a financial burden because of the dowry to be paid when they are married. A dowry is a transfer of money or property from the family of the bride to the family of the groom at their wedding.
This discrimination is believed to be the cause behind the skewed sex ratio that found there are just 940 females for every 1,000 males according to a 2011 census.
A recent study by UNICEF found 500,000 unborn baby girls were being aborted in the country each year, while a report dating back to 2006 found that 10 million girls were killed – either before they were born or immediately after – by their parents between 1986 and 2006.
Male children are preferred in India as it’s believed they will bring wealth and prosperity to the family, while females are often viewed as merely a burden.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.