Sir — The tragedy that unfolded at the target-oriented Bilaspur sterilisation camp is appalling, and unacceptable in any civil society. Poor women are offered cash incentives to undergo sterilisation at the risk of their lives. It is shocking that all human values and medical ethics are compromised in the mad race to meet the numbers. The death of mostly poor and illiterate women in the botched sterilisation surgeries in Chhattisgarh brings back into focus a long-running, contentious state-run programme that is neither transparent nor clinically safe, nor even greatly beneficial in stabilising India’s population.
The shocking state of affairs at Government-run target-oriented sterilisation programmes exists not just in Bilaspur but nationwide too.