NEW DELHI—The death of sixteen women from a sterilization camp last month raised critical questions about India’s family planning program and the culture that led to the creation of sterilization camps.
On Nov. 8, eighty three women in the central city of Bilaspur, were sterilized in six hours with the same laparoscope, the same gloves, and the same needles.
Sixteen of them died the next day, and while their deaths were initially attributed to the drugs they were given post-procedure, an investigative report by four NGOs said the deaths were mostly likely caused by infection.
Sterilization
On paper, India’s family planning program includes a wide array of birth control options to help stabilize the 1.25 billion population. In practice, however, the main form of birth control advocated by the government is sterilization, and sterilization of females in particular.
It is 80 percent easier to sterilize men than women, according to Florence Jasmine David, a nurse and program director at International Services Association, a community health organization in India.
Despite this, sterilizations are still exponentially more common for females in India than they are for males, as birth control is still seen primarily as a women’s responsibility.
“There’s a misconception that [for men] sexual power goes off because of sterilization,” said Dr. S.K. Sharma, a psychotherapist at a holistic care clinic in New Delhi called Ethos Health Care.
