Exhausted but elated. Young mother Manu Bala cradles her newborn in a decrepit public hospital in India, where she has just helped make her country the most populous on the planet.
Tears of joy and relief flow down the cheeks of the young woman, touched by her little girl snuggled in a diaper against her chest.
Like her, 67,000 babies were born in India on Monday. On the same day, the UN announced that the Indian nation, which is already home to more than one in six human beings, would eclipse China this week with the largest population on the planet.
"I am very happy that my child was born the day India overtook China. It's special to become a mother on that day," Manu Bala told AFP, lying on her hospital bed.
The 22-year-old stay-at-home mom absolutely wants her "baby to study a lot and become what she wants to be."
"I want to give him a good life," she promises.
The newborn does not yet have a first name. Rohit, Bala's husband, delighted with his new fatherhood, is already thinking about the weeks to come: the family will hold a baptism ceremony eleven days after the birth, with the help of a Hindu priest who will consult the astrological charts to find the child an auspicious name.
At the public hospital in Dehra, a Himalayan city in northern India, Rohit and her mother anxiously awaited delivery outside the crowded maternity ward.
Writhing in pain, Bala, surrounded by nurses in green and white coveralls, feet in stirrups, gave birth to her first child.
"Push harder," the doctor told him in the labor room.
And with sweat running down her forehead, the grimacing young Bala clutched the sides of the bed before the final push, greeted by a round of applause from the medical staff.
Holding her baby to her chest, relief shows on her pale face. The young mother gathered a last reserve of energy to thank the doctor and the nurses.
Rohit is relieved that the delivery went without complications.
But this official is worried about the future that awaits his daughter. "There are a lot of problems that we have to face due to the increase in population," the 30-year-old told AFP.
"Even to see a doctor here, we had to queue for a long time. India is facing huge challenges in providing electricity, food and housing for its growing population," he said. he.
Many Indian cities face water shortages, air and water pollution and overcrowded slums.
Millions of young people enter the labor market each year and struggle to find opportunities in an economy that does not have the capacity to provide employment for all of them.
"There is already a lot of unemployment in the country. It will be all the more difficult to find a job", alarmed Rohit. "I think one baby is enough right now."
26/04/2023 07:40:45 - Dehra (Inde) (AFP)
