Maharashtra’s Beed family celebrates birth of first baby girl in 200 years

In Maharashtra’s Beed district, the Dahifale family celebrated the birth of a baby girl, Gargi, with a grand chariot procession — the first daughter born in four generations. The family, which claims not to have had a girl in two centuries, welcomed her with drums, dancing, and reverence, calling her ‘Lakshmi Devi’.

Beed (Maharashtra): The Dahifale family in Maharashtra’s Beed district turned the birth of a baby girl into a gala event by giving a rousing welcome to the infant in a chariot procession, as it was the first time in four generations that a daughter was born.

The baby girl, named Gargi, along with her mother, was brought in a chariot, complete with drums, cymbals and dancing, after they were discharged from the hospital.

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The family said that it did not have a daughter in the past two centuries.

Considering himself fortunate to have finally been a part of celebrations for the birth of a girl child in the family, the infant’s grandfather said: “It is a great fortune to have a daughter in the family. For so many years, we had the regret of not having a daughter, and today that has been fulfilled.”

Gargi’s grandmother, Surekha Dahifale, called the child ‘Lakshmi Devi’, the Hindu goddess of wealth.

She added that the family had decided at the hospital itself that they would welcome the child in a grand way.

Expressing his happiness, the baby’s father said: “Daughters are usually more close to their fathers; we will raise her like a flower.”

He said that though people generally wished to have a son, “it is a different feeling to have a daughter”.

Previously, a celebration marking the birth of a girl child was witnessed in Rajasthan’s Piplantri village, where 111 saplings are planted for the birth of each girl.

The ritual was started by the village’s former sarpanch Shyam Sunder Paliwal, after the death of his daughter.

The practise marked a shift from the society’s long standing norm of wishing for a male child, specially in Rajasthan which had historically experienced a skewed child sex ratio and increased cases of female foeticide.