SHREYA KEDIA
The Supreme Court’s recent order to close sterilisation camps in the country has come as welcome news for many women groups, healthcare activists and other civil organisations, who had for long expressed concern over successive Governments’ poor strategy to control population, which had hit the vulnerable the most. In a sense, there is reason to cheer as the apex court, while setting a deadline of three years, ordered for strict implementation of legal, medical and technical standards for sterilisation.
It also said that compensation must be provided to the family members of the victims and asked the Government to hold doctors accountable for negligence. The judgement has come as a major victory for those women who were lured by way of money, only to be subjected to inhumane and unhygienic conditions.
India’s history of mass sterilisation can be traced back to the Emergency days when the Indira Gandhi Government, in order to clamp down on population growth, imposed sterilisation on about 10 million people, especially men. Since then, sterilisation had become a norm for successive Governments to keep a check on population growth. The difference, however, was that the focus shifted to sterilising women. So much so that women took the entire responsibility of family planning.
Hopes were high when in 2000, when the Government took the onus to put in place a policy that would turn away from coercive population control to focus on promoting heath, while keeping in mind human rights, especially of girls and women. And this is what happened:
In 2012, 53 women were sterilised under inhumane conditions in Bihar. Surgeries were conducted under torchlight within two hours. In yet another horrifying case in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh, out of the 83 women who underwent a laparoscopic tubectomy, over ten women were killed and several others were in critical condition. History is replete with stories where women have fallen on bad days due to Government’s apathy.
Deaths were caused because operating procedures were not followed. Doctors, healthcare workers were ignorant of the guidelines and training directives while conducting operations. Poor hygienic conditions, outdated medicines, poor management, no post and pre follow-up care etc, were some of the reasons for the deaths. Many State Governments even set annual and quarterly targets for sterilisation due to which, surgeons carried out the operations hastily, even exceeding the stipulated number of surgeries per day.
Uneducated, rural women, who were unaware of options to birth-control, were easily lured in many cases, and even forced by healthcare workers and family alike, only to land up to the operation table. Families too were ready to risk the lives of their women because of the financial lure that came along. Materialistic things like cars, motor cycles, fridge, home appliances etc came as a bonanza. Surprisingly, women were not informed about the risk involved in the procedure.
Male, on the other hand, were reluctant to undergo a surgery due to reasons associated with society and Indian culture. This, despite the fact that male sterilisation is short, simple and less risky. Also, men are offered greater compensation than women. Resultantly, such practices became anti-women and barbaric in nature or it may be conclude that instead of focusing on quality, sterilisations became more of a quantitative work.
Given that India’s population is slated to grow more than China by 2022, it is understandable that it is imperative for India to control population, but it should not be done at the costs human lives. For decades, the Government has heavily been dependent on female sterilization as the primary mode of contraception. This calls for a strong healthcare family programme that ought to be implemented in letter and spirit. The Government must focus on promoting gender equality.
People, especially women in rural areas, must be educated and counseled about various birth control methods. Cheap injectable contraceptives for women must be introduced. Governments must also shift focus from incentive and target-based sterilization and strictly adhere to the protocols set by the apex court. More than anything else, the Union Government must see to it that the State Governments do not get to the old ways of incentives and bribery. Sterilisation should not be the dominant mode of contraception; it should be a matter of choice.
(The writer is a journalist with an interest in social issues)