Indian
sterilisation campaign leaves 10 women dead
Latest update : 2014-11-11
Ten women have died in India and dozens more
are in hospital, many in a critical condition, after taking part in a state-run
mass sterilisation drive, a local official said Tuesday.
Ten women have died in India and dozens
more are in hospital, some in a critical condition, after a state-run programme
that pays women to undergo sterilisation went badly wrong, officials said
Tuesday.
Sterilisation is one of the most popular
methods of family planning in India, where the government provides cash and
other incentives to try to control the country's billion-plus population, but
rights groups say the system is often abused.
More than 60 women fell ill after
undergoing the surgery over the weekend in the central state of Chhattisgarh,
and 10 have now died, local official Sonmani Borah told AFP.
"With two more deaths reported today
(Tuesday), the death toll in the family planning operation-related case has
gone up to 10," Borah told AFP by phone.
Around 80 women had the procedure at the
local government-run sterilisation camp.
The women suffered vomiting and a dramatic
fall in blood pressure, said Borah, the commissioner for Bilaspur district,
where the camp was held.
It was not immediately clear what caused
the deaths, but doctors in the state told AFP the women's symptoms suggest the
drugs they were given after the relatively simple procedure may have been the
cause.
State governments in India frequently
organise mass sterilisation camps under a national programme whereby women are
given 1,400 rupees ($23) as an incentive to have the operation.
Under pressure to meet targets, some local
governments also offer other incentives such as cars and electrical goods to
couples volunteering for sterilisation.
Although the surgery is voluntary, rights
groups say the target-driven nature of the programme has led to women being
coerced into being sterilised, often in inadequate medical facilities.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh
suspended four top health officials over the deaths, while a police complaint
was lodged against the surgeon who performed the operations.
Singh also announced compensation of
400,000 rupees ($6,500) for each of the families of those women who died.
Focus on women
Angry residents took to the streets of
Bilaspur where many of the women have been hospitalised demanding action
against those responsible.
The women had undergone laparoscopic
sterilisation, a process in which the fallopian tubes are blocked, usually
under general anaesthesia.
The Indian Express daily said the surgeries
were carried out by one doctor and his assistant in around five hours.
"There was no negligence. He is a
senior doctor. We will probe (the incident)," the chief medical officer of
Bilaspur R.K. Bhange told the newspaper.
Last year, authorities in eastern India
came under fire after a news channel unearthed footage showing scores of women
dumped unconscious in a field following a mass sterilisation.
The women had all undergone the procedure
at a hospital that local officials said was not equipped to accommodate such a
large number of patients.
In 2011, the government issued guidelines
outlining the standard operating procedures for sterilisation services in
camps.
But a 2012 report by Human Rights Watch
urged the government to set up an independent grievance redress system to allow
people to report coercion and poor quality services at sterilisation centres.
It also said the government should
prioritise training for male government workers to provide men with information
and counselling about contraceptive choices.
But despite the recommendations to the
national government, problems persist on the ground.
India's family planning programme has
traditionally focused on women, and experts say that male sterilisation is
still not accepted socially.
Government figures from 2008 show that
around one third of the 54 percent of the population that reported using any
form of family planning opted for female sterilisation.
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