By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Mar 29 (IANS): A newborn female infant, who was abandoned and flung into thorny bushes in Maharashtra's Beed district last month, has finally recovered and discharged from a private hospital, a doctor said here on Sunday.

She was discharged on Saturday (March 28) and handed over to an orphanage in Ahmednagar which would be her new home, said a proud doctor Vijay Randad, who cared and treated her for over a month.

The baby was severely malnourished, grossly underweight at around 1.5 kg and found precariously lodged in the thorny bushes of the acacia plant, near the railway line in Beed, on February 24.

Passersby heard her painful wails and alerted Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde, who immediately ordered the local Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) activists and medicos to rush to her aid.

In an equally heart-warming gesture, Munde and his colleague, NCP MP Supriya Sule, the only daughter of party President Sharad Pawar, have jointly decided to take care of all her expenses till she gets married.

A father of three young daughters himself, Munde even christened her as 'Shivkanya' and directed the local medical authorities to provide the best possible medicare to the infant.

Since her condition was critical when she was rushed to the local government hospital, Munde directed her to be admitted to the private hospital under the care of Randad's "Randad Hospital" in Parli town.

"She was in a delicate condition, but we were confident of treating her. After one month, she has gained over two kg weight, her injury marks have virtually disappeared. She is feeding very well and is now ready to live independently without further medicare," Randad told IANS.

This was described as a remarkable improvement compared to her poor condition barely a month ago when she was born premature, around 28-30 weeks (seven-and-half months) of pregnancy, underweight, and had sustained minor injuries on her tender body.

According to local NCP activists, the baby was a rejected love-child of a 16-year-old (minor) girl and a 21-year old boy.

The baby's plight was first highlighted by IANS on Febuary 25, especially since Beed once enjoyed a notorious reputation for female foeticide and infanticide cases, besides a skewed sex-ratio.

"The young unmarried couple was traced and arrested by the police and the legal process is underway for the inhuman treatment meted out to the baby. However, despite all efforts, they are not prepared to accept her, so little Shivkanya will live in an orphanage for now," said an activist.

On his part, Munde has been regularly monitoring Shivkanya's medical condition and progress and was satisfied with the developments.

"There will be many legal formalities to be completed, but I have not yet decided on formally adopting Shivkanya yet," Munde has said.

After finding the wailing baby, locals termed her as "a living miracle" since she emerged unscathed from attacks by wild creatures or reptiles or insects and got a new lease of life thanks to the minister and later doctor Randad.