A newborn baby girl in the city of Una in western India's Gujurat state miraculously survived being thrown into a thorny bush by her parents and left for dead.
The little girl was found lying under the bush, covered in scratches and bleeding from several places where the thorns had pierced her tender skin. She was rescued after her cries were overheard by a passerby who went to investigate. The passerby alerted emergency services and an ambulance quickly arrived on the scene to take the baby to a hospital to be checked over by doctors. Doctors said the baby would have died had she not been found by the passerby. Medics carefully pulled the thorns from her body before cleaning her up and making sure that she was fed. They later said that she was recovering from her injuries and described her condition as stable.
It is believed that the case is the latest tragic example of baby girls being rejected by their families in India. Police have launched a search for the baby's parents who they believe deliberately dumped her in the bushes. Baby girls are considered a curse and a financial burden in many poor areas of India. Families fear to have to pay expensive dowries for their weddings, while boys are usually counted upon to take care of their parents in their old age.UNICEF estimates up to 50 million girls and women are missing in India's population as a result of infanticide and sex-selective abortions...