DNA test unites babies with parents

ABOUT A BOY: A hospital mix-up led to two families fighting over a baby boy.

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Chennai: Born just minutes apart, two babies came into the world with a big question wrapped around them – who was their mother?

A mix-up by hospital staff led to the baby boy being given to Kamakshi and the baby girl to Farhath Begum. The doctors realised it was a mistake but both families fought for the baby boy and neither wanted the girl.

Four days later, it was a DNA test that has given the answers – the boy was born to Farhath Begum and the girl was Kamakshi's.

"We knew all along that this was the truth. If the girl was indeed ours, we would have accepted her happily. How can we take a child that's not ours?" reasoned the boy’s father, Syed Ansari.

It took an active court of law and a forensic department to dispose off the case as quickly as possible but even now, the girl's parents have refused to speak to the media. They will have to accept the verdict but the case itself is perhaps a reminder of the extreme gender discrimination in 21st-century India.