Ten women dead in India after sterilisation surgery

Ten women died and 14 were left in a serious condition after botched operations at what has been described as a government mass sterilisation camp in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

The women fell ill on Monday, two days after surgery at a so-called family planning camp in a village. Such camps are held regularly in Chhattisgarh and other Indian states as part of a long-running effort to control India’s booming population.

Negligence

"It was a serious matter of negligence. It was unfortunate," the chief minister of the state, Raman Singh, told reporters. The chief minister said that four officials have been suspended and an investigation will be held.

The cause of the deaths is not yet clear, but officials said they were looking into several possibilities, including whether the surgical equipment used in the operations was infected.

Some 83 women had laparoscopic tubectomy surgery at the camp, receiving incentive payments of 1,400 rupees (around €18), said R.K. Bhange, chief medical officer for Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Health workers got 200 rupees (around €3) for each woman they brought to the camp.

The incident will be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has vowed to reform India's health system. Mr Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party rules in Chhattisgarh, expressed concern over the tragedy.

Workers of the Congress party, the main opposition party in the state, demanded the resignation of the state’s health minister and chief minister.

Existing problem

Deaths due to sterilisation are not a new problem in India, where more than four million sterilisations were performed during the period 2013-2014, according to the government.

Between 2009 and 2012, the government paid compensation for 568 deaths resulting from sterilisation.

Health advocates worry that paying women to undergo sterilisation is dangerous on a number of levels.

“The payment is a form of coercion, especially when you are dealing with marginalised communities,” said Kerry McBroom, director of the Reproductive Rights Initiative at the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi.

She said care at the family planning camps was often inadequate, with surgery rushed through in unhygienic conditions.

Pratap Singh, commissioner of Chhattisgarh’s Department of Health and Family Welfare, said that the state’s sterilisation programme was entirely voluntary.

The United Nations also expressed its concern.

“If the facts are confirmed, then a grave human tragedy has occurred,” said Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund. “Where there is deviation from clinical standards, there must be consequences.”

Reuters