Family Planning or Family Banning?

Female Sterilization: A close look from rural community perspective

By Alma Grace Barla

The news of terrible tragedy of death of rural women who underwent sterilization in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh has caused anger and frustration to many people on such barbaric nature of controlling population in the country. Infact, this news wasn’t a surprise to me, but it left me traumatized for a couple of days. Some questions kept haunting me like why women had to pay heavy price while their men too are equally responsible for the family planning? Why only the rural poor and tribal women are forced to undergo such sterilization? Is there more population growth in the rural areas than in the cities?

According to the media reports, so far 14 women have died; out of which two were from the Baiga tribe. Forceful sterilization of Baiga women is against the Constitutional Provision which shows deliberate action and utter negligence by the Government.  Baiga community which comes under Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) has been adopted by the President of India for their protection, and are forbidden to do sterilization as their number is constantly decreasing.

In 2012, during my home visit to the interior village of Sundargarh district, situated on the border of northwestern Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, women of my village had similar stories to share. In a medical camp among the 100 young mothers, some went through sterilization and some were inserted with Intrauterine Devices (IUDs) or Copper T – one of the tools of birth control and were sent off with some amount of cash as ‘incentive’. Few women fell sick due to excess bleeding and were taken to the Govt. hospital situated about 50-60km away from the camp. It was a Govt. sponsored programme which was carried out in a mud hut by only one male physician and a nurse from a Baba Ashram (community health centre affiliated to a Hindu outfit organization). There was no account of cases of successful operation or how many suffered or died.

Most of the women told that they did it in fear and constant pressure from the health workers (they even considered it Govt. order), some were advised by their family members for monetary benefits and some on their own will. At the end of the conversation, I could notice a wave of confusion and anxiety about post-health complications ruling over their faces.

A mother of two children, Nilmanti (25) narrated, after insertion of Copper-T, how she lost appetite, saw changes in menstrual bleeding, lost weight, often suffered with fever, abdominal pain and could not go for regular field work. In the case of Sunita, she developed uterine mussel around the device and had to be operated on critical condition. There are thousands of women like Nirmanti and Sunita who have suffered the terrible side-effects of sterilization and use of IUDs.

"we  have every right to decide when and how many children we want to have" pic: almabarla

The local community leaders were apprehensive about this drive that it could be government’s hidden agenda to de-schedule the area by reducing tribal population in the district. Sundargarh is a store house of natural resources which fully falls under 5th Scheduled Areas (having 50.7% ST population) guarantees tribal autonomy and tribal rights over land and resources through a Tribal Advisory Council in the State. So also the community leaders and civil society activists from neighbouring villages of Chhattisgarh opined as there had been declining population trends in the figures of Census 2011. Some of the villages were reported zero Schedule Tribe families even though they have been living over centuries.

While six naxalite-affected districts such as Koriya, Dakshin Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma, Jashpur and Kanker have shown a low decadal growth rate, sparking off a debate on the reasons behind the decline and even the authenticity of the Census exercise in these areas show gross violation of human rights including unethical removal of wombs to claim money under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (The Hindu), over 70 people losing eyesight in different camps, the green-hunt drive, extra judicial killings, development induced displacement all amount to the mass exodus. From the available information there are no other reasons like an epidemic, scarcity of food or sources of livelihood and existence as push factors but such govt. policy and action could be one of the hidden agendas of the Govt. to reduce tribal and rural population.

Another example could be derived from the Wayanad district of Kerala, where tribals make up the majority of people attending sterilization camps contributing to the slow decline of adivasi community and making easier for the Govt. to acquire their lands for developmental projects. However, this scenario calls for an independent survey, research study and in-depth analysis.

Various media throw lights on how women 10 times more than men go through sterilization operations in extremely poor and unhygienic camps, even though female sterilization is more complicated than men. Recalling my mother’s testimony and drawing a piece of her wisdom, promotion of alternative methods like use of traditional anti-fertility herbs would give better solution to family planning programme in the rural villages. So also our women needed to be more educated on natural or moral family planning that can help married couples either to achieve or to avoid pregnancies.

Cover Story Published in Indian Currents, 17 - 23 November, 2014, pgs. 36-3736,