It was one for the books. A yet-to-be-born child has been put up for sale in India, no less than by his or her own mum.

And what's even more surprising is that according to the mother, identified only as Pooja by local media reports, she had received at least 300 interested callers willing to buy the unborn baby.

In India, Yet to Be Born Child Already Put Up For Sale By Own Mum

Dire financial conditions forced Pooja, a mother of three, to place an advertisement in a popular Hindi newspaper. She claimed they used to be well-off, but her husband had incurred heavy losses from his previous business. To support his family, Pooja said her husband now works as a rickshaw puller.

"My husband [a rickshaw puller now] incurred losses in business. We don't have means to look after the three children. We have so much of loan to pay and need to build a house too," she said.

It was believed her selling price for the unborn child is 600,000 Indian rupee (AU$10,956).

But surrogacy for commercial purposes is actually an open and welcome secret in India. It is acknowledged that some mothers and families do sell their unborn because of their poor conditions.

What catapulted Pooja to unwanted publicity and perhaps was her decision to sell the child through a legitimate and open channel, that is by posting it through a newspaper publication.

India got further aghast when she even faced reporters to explain her reasons for such behaviour.

As expected, social activists immediately jumped on the gun, but police explained they could not arrest the pregnant mother because there was no complaint filed against her.

The district administration of Yamunanagar, however, said it had ordered an enquiry into the matter.

"It is nothing short of human trafficking for which the punishment varies between the minimum five year imprisonment and maximum being life imprisonment," Ajay Chaudhary, a Gurgaon-based lawyer said.