Pleased at male heir but daughter is a burden

World's oldest mother, 70, is pleased at male heir but declares daughter 'a burden'

The world's oldest mum, who gave birth to twins at 70 after IVF, proudly showed off her son, then admitted: 'Now I've got another daughter to feed too.'

Omkari Panwar, and her husband Charan Singh Panwar, 77, underwent IVF all for the sake of producing a male heir to take over the family's smallholdings.

The elderly Indian couple, who already have two daughters in their thirties, and five grandchildren, are near destitute after mortgaging their land, selling their buffalo and taking out a loan for the £4,400 fertility treatment.

Now the pensioner parents will rely on family handouts and the charity of fellow villagers to bring up the little boy they so wanted, and the little girl they didn't.'We could not afford to stay there, so we had to leave them.' And she added: 'We paid all this money to the doctors for a son, but now we have the extra burden of another daughter as well.'

Boys are cherished in India because daughters are not allowed to inherit property but leave to marry and become part of their new husband's family.The twins were born at 34 weeks by emergency caesarian section at a hospital in the nearest town of Muzaffarnagar.

They weighed just 2lbs each and had to be rushed to the Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital which has a neonatal intensive care unit.

'They were so tiny, they would have fit into the palm of my hand.' The Panwars had to scrape together a further £500 to pay for part of their children's medical care and are now almost penniless.

Their little boy is now likely to take over a tiny piece of land with a large mortgage still to pay on it.But Charan insists the cost was worthwhile, after he became a laughing stock in his village because he had no son to carry on the family name.'I've finally got what I wanted and I can die a happy man now,' said Charan.'My wife will look after the babies when I am gone, and after she dies my other daughters will care for them.'It will be an honour for them to raise their new brother.'Now my daughters will have a family home to return to on religious days and special occasions.'

It is tradition for sons to remain in the parental home with their wives. On festival days the daughters of the family come to visit with their own husbands and children.Villagers welcomed the jubilant pair back to the village, which lies 20km from Muzaffarnagar, with numerous gifts for the new babies.

The twins will be named at a special Hindu ceremony next week when the whole community will celebrate their arrival into the world.