Delhi: Two sisters who kidnapped 13 young children and forced them to work as pickpockets before murdering them are to become the first women to be executed in India.

Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit became India's most notorious serial killers when they were convicted of a series of child murders in 2001 and sentenced to death. They were charged with 13 kidnappings and 10 murders and were found guilty of five killings.

Now, 13 years after their convictions, they are to be hanged at Maharashtra's Yerwada jail after India's president rejected their final appeal for mercy.

Their imminent executions have revived painful memories in India of some of the most brutal crimes in its recent history. One of the victims was an infant under two years old who died after his head was smashed against an electricity pole.

The sisters themselves were barely adults when they began their killing spree - Gavit was just 15 when she killed her first victim and her older sister was 17.