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.

"This birth marks a big success for the government's scheme," he said.

Raj, a resident of tsunami-devastated Kottilpadu town, 700 kilometresmiles) 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.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.