Thirteen women have died following a series of unhygienic sterilisation operations in an Indian birth control clinic.

Thirteen women have died following a series of unhygienic sterilization operations in an Indian birth control clinic.

The women, who attended a sterilization camp in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, were operated on in a poorly maintained operating theatre with unsterilized equipment, authorities said.

Dr R.K. Gupta, who once received a state honour for his sterilization work, has been arrested on charges of negligence. Gupta denies any misconduct and has blamed authorities for the tragedy. “It is the administration which is responsible for this incident”, he said. “If they kept in that place 83 women, it is my moral responsibility to operate (on) all the women.”

Gupta sterilized all the women in the clinic within three hours, taking between two to five minutes per operation.

India regularly conducts sterilization drives, and mass sterilization camps are most common in the poorest Indian states. The Chhattisgarh tragedy is not an isolated event. Official records show that 1,434 people died from sterilization procedures between 2003 and 2012. 

Indian doctor arrested over sterilisation tragedy in Chhattisgarh
Xavier Symons
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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