Infanticide is the killing of the newborn baby. Infanticide is the act of deliberately causing the death of a very young child. When the crime of infanticide is committed, this means that there was a deliberate killing of a child that is under a year old. The word infant is Latin and pertains to the inability to speak.
Nepalese law has also criminalized infanticide under Muluki Criminal (Code) Act 2074. The provisions relating to infanticide are as below:
Prohibition of throwing or abandoning person under one's own guardianship: (1) A person, being bound to care or maintain an infant, child, disabled patient or elderly person, shall not so throw, abandon or desert as to cause danger to the body or life of such infant, child, patient or elderly person.
(2) A person who commits, or causes to be committed, the offence referred to in sub-section (1) shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding thirty thousand rupees.
(3) If the offence referred to in sub-section (1) causes the death of such child, disabled patient or elderly person, the offender shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years and a fine not exceeding seventy thousand rupees. Provided that if the throwing, abandonment or neglect causes the death of an infant, the offender shall be liable to the sentence referred to in Section 177.