India's latest sterilisation camp massacre

Abstract

The desire to apportion immediate blame should not detract from the urgent need to overhaul the country’s approach to family planning The deaths of 13 women operated on at a sterilisation camp in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, have caused a stir in India and beyond.1 One surgeon conducted 83 sterilisations in six hours—much higher than the government limit of 30 a day.2 Speculations about who is responsible for these deaths abound. Amid the current media storm we should remember that complications and deaths resulting from poor quality of care in sterilisation camps are routine in India. The continued emphasis on mass female sterilisation, poor quality of services, and deep rooted coercion are all signs of a family planning programme that assigns little value to women’s lives, especially those of poor women, who are viewed as “irresponsible breeders.” Fuelled by global propaganda about a “population explosion,” policy makers have long been concerned by India’s population. As a result, the family planning programme focuses on “population stabilisation” rather than providing couples with a range of contraceptive choices. Sterilisation, which is …