'53 women sterilized in Bihar in 2 hours' (India)

Source: Times of India

Apr 3, 2012, 03.00AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Guinness Book of world record would have been happy to include this feat by a surgeon on January 7 in Bihar's Araria district - 53 sterilization operations on females in two hours with the help of unqualified staff in Kaparfora Government Middle School that did not have basic amenities like running water or sterilizing equipment.

Instead, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union and state governments on a PIL alleging similar cases being repeated in most states where female sterilization (minilap procedures) were outsourced to NGOs that take help of private doctors to conduct these surgeries in woefully unhygienic conditions.

Appearing for PIL petitioner Devika Biswas, a native of Araria and a health right activist, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves told a bench of Justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale that despite extensive guidelines issued by the apex court "inhuman sterilizations, particularly in rural areas, continue with reckless disregard for the lives of poor women" and cited the Bihar incident as a case study.

"In clear violation of nearly all the guidelines, government Accredited Social Health Activist under National Rural Health Mission workers recruited between 50 and 63 below poverty line, scheduled caste and other backward class women for NGO (Jai Ambe Welfare Society) sterilization camp at Government Middle School, Kaparfora, on January 7. Neither the NGO nor the surgeon conducted pre-operative tests to determine suitability of the enlisted women for sterilization," alleged Biswas, who hails from Araria and claimed to be an eye-witness.

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/53-women-sterilized-in-Bihar-in-2-hours/articleshow/12511547.cms

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