India’s sterilization drive leaves at least women 11 dead
NEW DELHI – India’s drive to limit population growth by offering free sterilization surgeries left at least 11 women dead and 20 others seriously ill today, highlighting the risks women face in reproductive health in a country struggling with high rates of poverty.
A total of 83 women, all villagers under the age of 32, had the operations Saturday as part of the free sterilization campaign and were sent home that evening. But dozens later became ill and were rushed in ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur, a city in central Chhattisgarh state.
By this morning, at least 11 women had died – apparently from either blood poisoning or hemorrhagic shock, which occurs when a person has lost too much blood, state deputy health director Amar Singh told reporters.
About 20 others were in critical care, and the central government was rushing a team of doctors to Bilaspur to help with their treatment.
“Their condition is very serious. Blood pressure is low,” said Dr. Ramesh Murty at CIMS hospital, one of the facilities where the sick women were taken. “We are now concentrating on treating them, not on what caused this.” Preliminary results from autopsies were expected to be released today.
India’s government – long concerned about pervasive poverty among its rapidly growing 1.3 billion population – performs millions of free sterilizations to both women and men who want to avoid the risk and cost of having a baby. The vast majority of patients, however, are poor women – paid a one-time incentive fee to undergo the surgery of about $10-$20, or the equivalent of about a week’s pay for a poor person in India. About 180 million people in the country still live on less than $1.25 a day.
India has one of the world’s highest rates of sterilization among women, with about 37 percent undergoing such operations compared with 29 percent in China, according to 2006 statistics reported by the United Nations. During 2011-12, the government said 4.6 million Indian women were sterilized.
Activists blame the incentive payments, as well as sterilization quotas set by the government, for leading health authorities to pressure patients into surgery rather than advising them on other forms of contraception.
The women who underwent surgery on Saturday were each paid about $10, and all 83 surgeries were performed within six hours, the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. S.K. Mandal, told the Associated Press by telephone.
The state suspended four government doctors, including the surgeon who oversaw the operations and the district’s chief medical officer.
“It appears the incident occurred due to negligence” by doctors, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said, before urging patience for the autopsy results.