Patna, Nov. 11: All babies are equal but Baby Raushani is more equal than others.

Records at the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital show that Raushani, the infant daughter of Bhawani Devi and Ramvinay Chaudhry, a farmer of Mirzapur, was born at 11.11am today — 11.11.11.

The digits appear to have fascinated the state’s health minister, Ashwini Choubey, who has announced a bouquet of gifts for all babies born at that precise hour and minute today.

A minute matters in Bihar.

Babies born even a minute here and there of the sequence of numbers will not be the beneficiaries of Choubey’s largesse.

The minister, who was in Darbhanga to inspect a referral hospital, announced that the government would gift the newborns special health cards that will ensure their free medical treatment in all government hospitals till they are 18 years of age.

If the government does keep its word, Baby Raushani will benefit more. Choubey said girls born at 11.11am today would be given free education by the state government besides financial assistance for their marriage for which a new programme, called Chief Minister’s Girl Marriage Scheme, will be formulated soon.

The minister’s “discrimination” has raised eyebrows in academic and scientific circles. Scientist and chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, Rajmani Singh, said 11.11.11 had no scientific relevance. “Date, time and year have been created by man,” he said.

Vice-chancellor of Aryabhatta Knowledge University, S.N. Guha, wondered how the day was different from others. “Any baby born today will not be different from infants born on any other day or time.”

Parents whose babies were not lucky enough to be born at 11.11am were not amused. At MGM Hospital, Vinod Pandey, whose daughter was born around 12.40pm, said he did not believe that babies should be discriminated against. A mother whose son was born in a nursing home at Patliputra Colony around 1pm said she had not consulted any priest. “How can the state start discrimination right from birth?” she asked.

A Patna University professor, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that Choubey’s boss, chief minister Nitish Kumar, had once sought to dispel superstition by eating biscuits during a solar eclipse. “It’s sad that such a person is heading the health department which needs men having a rational and scientific temperament,” the professor said.