Man Digging A Grave For His Daughter Finds A Newborn Girl Buried Alive

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

In a twist of fate, a man in Lucknow, India, finds a baby girl alive in a pot while burying his infant daughter who died minutes after birth.

I only have one word to say. Or is it two? Bitter sweet.

Thought His Daughter Had Come Alive

Hitesh Sirohi was digging a grave to bury his infant daughter who died minutes after birth when his spade hit something hard.

Of course, Hitesh dug up the hard item. He found an earthen pot, and inside it: a baby girl who was still alive.

Unfolds like a plot from the drama, Glitch, doesn’t it?

Sirohi found the baby girl wrapped up in a cloth and crying. Hitesh fed her milk through cotton wool before calling the police and an ambulance.

Hitesh said that he thought that his daughter had come alive.

I would have felt exactly the same way. I mean, what are the chances of finding a living baby girl while bearing the heavy burden of burying your own deceased infant?

Makes you believe in magic doesn’t it? It sure makes me believe a little more.

Image: bestanimations.com

The baby is now being cared for by a private hospital and has been named Sita. She is expected to make a full recovery.

A police spokesperson told Telegraph, “We are now trying to find the parents of the baby. We will take strict action against those who have buried the infant alive.”

That’s good to hear.

But why is there a living baby being buried?

An Ugly Practice

While the incident itself is bittersweet and sad yet hopeful, it brings to light an ancient ugly practice: female infanticide.

In India, female babies are sometimes viewed as a bane, while male babies, a boon.

The simple reason is that the bride’s family has to cover the entire cost of the wedding, including gifting the groom’s family with money and elephants and what not, while the groom just has to show up in his paid-for suit.

I’m no feminist, which I think is really sexist, but this practice sounds equally sexist to me too.

Parents will go to any end to “pre-screen” for female babies and abort them even though the Indian government banned prenatal sex determination since 1994.

India is desperately trying to bridge the sex ratio gap of 940 females for every 1,000 males with strict laws. The figures come from a 2011 survey.

Hmmm, I wonder who is going to bear the sons? Other men?