Ten Die: Mass Sterilization in India Goes Wrong

This is simply shocking. At least ten women have died, dozens have been injured, and dozens are in hospital, many in a critical condition, after a state-run mass sterilization in India.

“Since Monday eight women have died and 64 are in various hospitals,” said Sonmani Borah, a government official in the state of Chhattisgarh, where the sterilization camp was held.

“Reports of a drop in pulse, vomiting and other ailments started pouring in on Monday from the women who underwent surgery,” said Sonmani Borah, the commissioner for Bilaspur district where the camp was held.

The Guardian newspaper detailed of what was happening:

“Reports of a drop in pulse, vomiting and other ailments started pouring in on Monday from the women who underwent surgery,” Sonmani Borah, the commissioner for Bilaspur district where the camp was held, told AFP news agency. “Since Monday eight women have died and 64 are in various hospitals.”

Four doctors have been suspended and police have registered a criminal complaint. Television footage showed women on stretchers being rushed into hospital with anxious relatives by their side.

Borah said authorities would investigate the incident, which took place at the government-run Nemi Chand hospital in the Pendari area of Bilaspur, 69 miles (110km) from state capital Raipur. The chief minister of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states, has ordered an investigation.

Deaths due to sterilization are not a new problem in India, where more than four million of the operations were performed in 2013-14, according to the government.

Between 2009 and 2012, the government paid compensation for 568 deaths resulting from sterilization, the health ministry said in an answer to a parliamentary question two years ago.

The women — all residents of neighbouring villages and most from BPL families — had undergone the laparoscopic tubectomy in just five hours at the camp in Takhatpur area of Bilaspur.

Though health officials denied any negligence, some admit that too many surgeries were perfomed in one day to meet targets.

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

The government has set up a three-member panel to investigate the incident, and announced a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh each for the families of the women who died, and Rs. 50,000 for those who are undergoing treatment.

These camps are held between October and February, and women who go through the surgery are paid Rs. 1,400 each.