By STEPHANIE MARSH.
Ten women have died in central India and dozens more are in hospital in a critical condition following a government-run mass sterilisation.
Local media in India reported 83 women volunteered to have sterilisation surgery at a family planning camp organised in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh over the weekend.
Authorities in Chhattisgarh said that many of the more than 80 women who had the sterilisation surgery fell ill shortly afterwards.
Local media said one doctor and an assistant carried out the surgeries in less than five hours.
Locals said the hospital was dirty and medicines were out of date.
The region’s chief medical officer R.K. Bange said there was no negligence on behalf of the doctor but the incident will be investigated.
“As of now, the government has not found any evidence of negligence,” Mr Bhange said.
He said the government doctors who had performed the surgeries were experienced in the procedure.
Panel to investigate deaths linked to sterilisation procedures
Authorities said a three-member panel will be set up to investigate the deaths and post-mortem reports are expected soon.
Sterilisation camps are common in parts of India where women are often unaware of other birth control methods.
Governments in India often offer incentives including cash or household goods to men and women volunteering for sterilisation, in an effort to try to control the country’s population of more than 1 billion.
The women are often paid about $25 to have the surgery, a significant amount of money for many of India’s rural poor.
Health workers also get about $3.25 for bringing a woman to the camp.
More than 40 million sterilisations were performed in 2013-14, according to the government.
Between 2009 and 2012, India’s government paid compensation for 568 deaths resulting from sterilisation, the health ministry said in an answer to a question in parliament two years ago.
Health advocates worry that paying women to undergo sterilisation at family planning camps is both dangerous and, by default, limits their contraceptive choices.
“The payment is a form of coercion, especially when you are dealing with marginalised communities,” said Kerry McBroom, from the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi.
This story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission. You can read the original story on the ABC website here.
Top Comments
In a country of 1 billion people i'm not against women having this operation, however it's staggering that they can do it without proper information!
(Please note i'm blaming the doctors and health care workers here, not the women)
I think you've missed the point. The issue isn't them having the operation, it's the operations being performed in unsafe conditions. You would never have a doctor perform sterilisations on 83 women in 5 hours in a dirty location in Australia, because it's a recipe for disastor. As Singki has said below, it's a sad reflection of the value of women in Indian culture.
No, I didn't miss the point, i was commenting on the parts of the article that concerned birth control.
Besides, 'proper information' would also include things such as chances of infection, fatigue, etc.
Ah India, where a woman's life is worth less than nothing. According to the ABC News Report, the surgeon and his assistant were able to perform so many surgeries in such a short amount of time because they didn't bother to sterilise their instruments between operations. Ah well, it's only women, it doesn't matter. Plenty more where they came from. And in more news, this time from Utter Pradesh, women students at Aligarh Muslim University have been banned from using the main library because 'if women went there, the library would be over congested by young men looking at them'. This is apparently not conducive to the young men's study regimes. The women have been told to use their own smaller library in the Women's College. Ah India, disgusting one day, murderous the next.
It's not just women who are not valued in India, the entire caste system does it. Stop making out that only women are treated like crap there.
Hanon, be realistic. The caste system is terrible, I agree, but even the men of the very lowest caste are still better off (if one can even use that phrase) than the women of the very lowest caste. The women of The Untouchables are the very lowest of the low and treated like crap by the men of their own caste and you know it.
In each caste system whether high or low, women are still regarded lower especially in the Muslim societies. So yes, it IS about women!
I agree with what you say when it comes to the appalling women's rights records in India. But I think before you generalise WHOLE of India, maybe look at any number of middle eastern or African countries where truly a woman's value is far less than that of a man by law! Unlike those countries India's laws at the very least protect women but it is an eternal struggle for India to fight off the inherent religious biases against women.