LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – A person has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh after slashing his pregnant spouse’s abdomen with a sickle, leaving her critically ailing and inflicting the demise of their unborn child boy, police and her relations stated.

The girl was in intensive care in a hospital within the capital, New Delhi, stated police in Budaun, following Saturday’s assault.

Her brother stated the assault befell as a result of the husband wished to know the infant’s gender. The couple already had 5 daughters.

“He attacked her with a sickle and ripped her stomach saying that he wanted to check the gender of the unborn child,” the girl’s brother, Golu Singh, informed the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Police stated the infant was stillborn late on Sunday and a person had been remanded in custody.

Daughters are sometimes seen as a burden in India, with households having to pay dowries after they marry, whereas sons are prized as breadwinners who inherit property and proceed the household identify.

Abortions of feminine fetuses have been banned in India, the place the desire for boys has led to a dwindling variety of ladies.

According to a authorities survey launched in July, India’s gender ratio, or the variety of females per 1,000 males, was 896 between 2015 and 2017, down from 898 in 2014-2016 and 900 in 2013-2015.

Indian regulation bans docs and well being staff from sharing an unborn little one’s intercourse with the mother and father, or finishing up assessments to find out the kid’s gender, and solely registered medical practitioners are allowed to carry out abortions.