A man has been arrested for killing his unwanted baby girl in Madhya Pradesh, India, in yet another instance that highlights the worrying preference for baby boys.
Narendra Rana, 40, was arrested today for the murder of his daughter six months ago which he admitted during interrogation.
The post-mortem which took five months to be completed "revealed that the baby had died due to consumption of nicotine" two days after being born.
Rana's wife Anita has said that her husband was depressed following the birth of their daughter.
In recent weeks several related incidents have been reported in Rajasthan, west ofMadhya Pradesh. Last week two sets of parents were fighting over a baby boy, while a baby girl was left unclaimed for seven days. The week before that the bodies of two baby girls were found in the city of Jaipur, seemingly abandoned after birth.
Concerns had already been raised prior to the discovery of the bodies in Jaipur, after the 2011 census revealed a disproportionate amount of males under the age of six. There were just 883 girls aged 0-6 compared for every 1,000 boys, which has prompted the state government to take measures against pre-natal sex determination.
