一位本已做过绝育手术的印度妇女在去年的印度洋海啸中一下子失去了自己的4个孩子，而在医生为她又做了一次“复育”手术后，此人于近日顺利产下了一名女婴。

    据法新社12月21日报道，去年12月26日，发生于印度尼西亚近海地带的一次海底地震引发了后来波及多国的大海啸，至少有1.6万名印度人在这场灾难里失去了生命。

    位于该国南部的泰米尔纳德邦则是其中的重灾区，当地政府决定允许那些在这场灾难中失去孩子的已绝育女性恢复生育能力，而一个叫作普拉提克莎（其含义为希望之婴）的女婴便是这一计划的首个“产物”。

    现年26岁名叫阿格尼丝·拉吉的产妇是一位渔民。泰米尔纳德邦卡尼亚库马里区的官员苏尼尔·帕利瓦尔表示，拉吉堪称“第一位海啸母亲”。帕利瓦尔说：“这个孩子的出生标志着政府的此项计划已取得巨大成功。”

    拉吉住在距离泰米尔纳德邦首府金奈市700公里远的考提尔帕杜镇上，该镇在去年的海啸中几乎被彻底摧毁，而她的4个孩子均被海啸夺去了生命。后来，医生对其已被结扎的输卵管进行了恢复。12月18日，拉吉产下了一个体重为3.35公斤的女婴。

    报道说，目前，至少有6名海啸幸存者在接受了此类手术后已经身怀六甲。按照泰米尔纳德邦的规定，对于那些在海啸中失去孩子但仍想再次生育的已绝育女性来说，当地政府将会向她们每人提供25000卢比（556美元）用以支付手术及其它方面的费用。

    An Indian woman whose four children were washed away in last year's tsunami has given birth to a baby girl after doctors reversed her sterilisation.

    Prateeksha or "Baby Hope" was the first child born in the tsunami-hit southern state of Tamil Nadu under a government scheme to undo sterilisations of women whose children died in the killer waves, doctors said.

    Agnes Raj, 26, is "the first tsunami mother," said Sunil Paliwal, district official for Kanyakumari district, after visiting the fisherwoman and her baby in hospital on Wednesday.

    "This birth marks a big success for the government's scheme," he said. Raj, a resident of tsunami-devastated Kottilpadu town, 700 kilometres (430 miles) from the state capital Chennai, lost her four children -- Pramod, Pratima, Pradisha and Ranjitha to the towering waves.

    Doctors reversed her tubal ligation after she told them she could not bear the prospect of a childless future.

    Last Sunday she gave birth to the baby weighing 3.35 kilograms (seven pounds six ounces) at the same private nursing home where she underwent the sterilisation reversal surgery.

    Doctors said at least half a dozen more tsunami survivors were pregnant after reversal of their sterilisations.

    "I have under my care six more women who have undergone the reversal procedure and have since conceived," said Indira Surendran, the doctor who performed the "microsurgical reversal sterilisation" on Raj.

    Tamil Nadu has offered tsunami-affected women who were sterilised and want to bear more children 25,000 rupees (556 dollars) to pay for the surgery and other costs.

    India lost at least 16,000 people in the December 26 tsunami that was triggered by an undersea earthquake off the Indonesian coast.