![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/aastha-arora-where-is-indias-billionth-baby-now/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/127273248_gettyimages-748530-594x594-1.jpg&description=Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Aastha Arora's birth in 2000 had made global headlinesAastha Arora arrived in the world amidst much fanfare.Within hours of her birth at 05:05 on 10 May 2000 in Delhi's Safdarjung hospital, the new-born was presented to the world as India's "one billionth citizen".Government ministers were photographed cradling the infant, wrapped in a soft pink blanket.Aastha's birth propelled India into an exclusive club where it joined China, the only other country with more than a billion people.At an event held to celebrate the milestone, the United Nations Population Fund's India representative Micheal Vlassoff described Aastha as a "very special and very unique" baby. Officials also pointed out that her birth was a wake up call to rethink ways to control India's burgeoning population.But the celebrations over the birth made global headlines and, for days after that, journalists made a beeline for her house in Najafgarh, a congested lower middle class colony in southwest Delhi.I too was a part of the BBC team that visited her home to see India's youngest celebrity and speak to Anjana Arora, her mother. More than two decades later, I revisited them to find out where "the special baby" was now and how she was faring.Image caption, Aastha has recently started her first jobThe 22-year-old who opened the door for me on a recent Sunday morning told me that she stopped feeling special a long time back and alleged that many promises politicians made at her birth weren't fulfilled.The reason she could only see me on a Sunday is because it's the only off day she has from work - she recently started working as a nurse at a private hospital."I wanted to study science and become a doctor, but my parents couldn't afford to send me to a private school so I had to compromise and train as a nurse," she tells me.Aastha shows me a folder of newspaper clippings compiled by her parents on her life - it's from these that she learnt about the circumstances of){kind=link}
Aastha Arora arrived in the world amidst much fanfare.
Within hours of her birth at 05:05 on 10 May 2000 in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital, the new-born was presented to the world as India’s “one billionth citizen”.
Government ministers were photographed cradling the infant, wrapped in a soft pink blanket.
Aastha’s birth propelled India into an exclusive club where it joined China, the only other country with more than a billion people.
At an event held to celebrate the milestone, the United Nations Population Fund’s India representative Micheal Vlassoff described Aastha as a “very special and very unique” baby. Officials also pointed out that her birth was a wake up call to rethink ways to control India’s burgeoning population.