India boatman praised for saving baby girl floating in a box

(FASTNEWS | COLOMBO) – A boatman in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state is being praised after he rescued a baby girl found floating in a wooden box in the Ganges river.

Gullu Chaudhary said he was alerted by the cries of the 21-day-old and found her wrapped in a red scarf in the box decorated with images of Hindu deities.

The baby has been taken to hospital and her health is being monitored. She will be sent to a shelter home later.

Officials are investigating how the baby ended up in the river.

They have not speculated on possible motives for the abandonment, but India’s gender ratio is one of the worst in the world. Women are often discriminated against socially and girls are seen as a financial burden, particularly among poor communities.

Although most unwanted female foetuses are aborted with help from illegal sex determination clinics, cases of baby girls being killed or abandoned after birth are not uncommon either.