India Awaits World’s Seven Billionth Baby

                

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama) -- Come Monday, it may be hard to predict which country would see the birth of the seven billionth baby.

Indians, however, are preparing for the historic baby, believing it would be born on their fertile soil, already home to the world's second largest population of 1.23 billion, second only to China.

While globally, a family anxiously awaits the special child, in Uttar Pradesh, a most populous north Indian state, child welfare groups and villagers are confident a pregnant mother in Lucknow would give birth to the baby.

"We have identified 250 women but zeroing in on seven women to deliver a baby in a health centre here and we are hoping for a baby girl.

"Our focus is on a girl to make it a symbolic event because their ratio (boy:girl) is skewed in UP (Uttar Pradesh) and India," Dr Neelam Singh, head of Vatsalya, a leading child welfare movement, told Bernama in an interview today.

She said the first child born, between midnight today and noon Monday, would be declared as the seven billionth baby.

Most women queuing to deliver in the community hall to mark the special event are from nearby villages, largly from farming families.

In UP, the male-female ratio is that for every 1,000 boys, there are 898 girls.

UP is home to nearly 200 million people and an estimated 15,000 babies are born every day in the much underdeveloped state, reports BERNAMA.

Meanwhile XINHUA in its report titled “Advent of 7 billionth baby expected in northern India” says:

NEW DELHI (NNN-Xinhua) -- Non-governmental organizations have zeroed in on seven expectant mothers in a village near Lucknow, capital of the northern Indian state Uttar Pradesh, for advent of the world's 7 billionth baby on Monday, reported Indo-Asian News Service Saturday.

A UN report said the world's 7 billionth baby is expected to be born in the country's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, on Monday.

Even though United Nations Population Fund has not pinpointed where the landmark baby would be born, experts have identified a particular area in the vicinity of Lucknow, said the report.

Plan India, the Indian branch of the Britain-based children's welfare NGO, Plan, has organized a major event at the Community Health Center in Mal village, 23 kilometers from Lucknow.

Plan India zeroed in on seven expectant mothers in the village, where a special ceremony will be held to accord a grand reception to the first of the seven children to be born between the midnight of Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 noon, with the new-born being instantly issued birth certificate, reports XINHUA. --NNN-XINHUA-BERNAMA