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10 die at Indian sterilization camp
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TEN women have died in India and dozens more are in hospital, some in a critical condition, after a state-run program that pays women to undergo sterilization went badly wrong, officials said yesterday.
Sterilization 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 said.
“With two more deaths reported today (Tuesday), the death toll in the family planning operation-related case has gone up to 10,” Borah said.
Around 80 women had the procedure at the local government-run sterilization 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 said 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 sterilization camps under a national program whereby women are given 1,400 rupees (US$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 sterilization.
Although the surgery is voluntary, rights groups say the target-driven nature of the program has led to women being coerced into being sterilized, 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 for each of the families of those women who died.
Angry residents took to the streets of Bilaspur where many of the women have been hospitalized demanding action against those responsible.
The women had undergone laparoscopic sterilization, 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.
India’s family planning program has traditionally focused on women, and experts say that male sterilization is still not accepted socially.
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