Indian baby picked as world's seven billionth person
Baby Nargis was born on Monday (Photo: Plan International) Continue reading the main story
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A baby born in India has been declared the world's seven billionth person by child rights group Plan International.
Baby Nargis was born at 07:25 local time (01:55GMT) in Mall village in India's Uttar Pradesh state.
Plan International says Nargis has been chosen symbolically as it is not possible to know where exactly the seven billionth baby is born.
The United Nations estimated that on Monday 31 October, the world's population would reach seven billion.
Earlier on Monday, the Philippines also declared a symbolic seven billionth baby, a girl born in a Manila hospital.
Every minute, 51 babies are born in India, 11 of them in the most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
Nargis was born to Vinita and Ajay Kumar on Monday morning in a small government-run hospital in Mall village, nearly 50km (31 miles) from the state capital, Lucknow, a Plan International official told the BBC.
The daughter of a poor farmer, Nargis was chosen as the seventh billion baby to focus attention on the ills of female foeticide and India's skewed sex ratio, the organisation said.
Hundreds of thousands of female foetuses are aborted in India every year, even though sex-selective terminations and the use of ultrasound technology for foetal sex-determination are illegal there.
Photos of baby Nargis were shown at a function attended by nearly 250 villagers at the hospital, the BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi reports from Mall.
Health officials presented the birth certificate to her father at the event.
'We were praying all along for a daughter,' Ajay Kumar said. 'She is Lakshmi
Hindu goddess of wealth
, she will bring us good luck,' he said.
A street play staged at the event on the importance of the girl child saw many moist eyes among the audiences, our correspondent says
31 Oct 2011 10:33:50 GMT 
31 Oct 2011 11:30:01 GMT 
31 Oct 2011 12:17:09 GMT 
31 Oct 2011 12:17:58 GMT