Both the minor and the baby girl
were safe at the state-run hospital in the northern city of Chandigarh,
according to Dasari Harish, chairman of the committee that was set up to
treat and take care of the girl.
"The girl is stable. The infant has been admitted to the neo-natal intensive care unit and it [she] will be able to recover," he said by phone from Chandigarh.
Local media reports said the girl
was unaware she had delivered a child and her parents had told her she
was operated on because of a stomach problem.
"It was a high-risk pregnancy and a
team of experts comprising obstetricians, gynaecologists,
neonatologists and anaesthetists oversaw the delivery," he said.
"We think it's the first case of
its kind in the country. We did our utmost to ensure the safety and the
health of the girl and the baby," he added.
The girl was repeatedly raped by
her uncle over several months. The crime came to light when the girl was
taken to hospital complaining of stomach ache last month, and was found
to be around 30 weeks into the pregnancy. Her uncle was arrested
shortly afterwards.
Indian law prohibits medical
termination of pregnancies after 20 weeks except when the mother’s life
is at risk. Lawyers had approached the Supreme Court on behalf of her
parents but the judges refused their plea to allow an exception.
The court dismissed the plea after
taking note of a medical report that abortion was neither good for the
girl nor for the foetus. The doctors’ panel had advised against the
abortion as they felt the child was too far into her pregnancy.
Sexual abuse of children is
rampant in India. A total of 10,854 cases of child rape were reported in
2015. Activists say that many more cases likely went unreported. (DPA)
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