KOLKATA: Scores of women were dumped unconscious in a field after a mass sterilisation in eastern India because there was no room in hospital for them to recuperate, medical officials said Thursday.
The women had all undergone surgical procedures at a hospital in the Malda district of West Bengal, around 360 kilometres north of Kolkata, which officials admitted was not equipped to accommodate such a large number of patients.
The scandal came to light after news channel NDTV aired amateur footage of unconscious women being carried out of the hospital Tuesday by men and then placed on open land.
Local health officials acknowledged that the patients' treatment was unacceptable and promised an inquiry.
"Over 100 women, mostly poor, came to the camp for the surgery. Immediately after the procedure, the doctors asked the helpers to move each of them to the adjacent field," Biswa Ranjan Satpathi, West Bengal's director of health services, told AFP in Kolkata.
"This is inhuman and we have ordered a probe into the incident," he added.
Medical experts also voiced shock over conditions at the hospital, where four doctors carried out a total of 106 sterilisations in one day.
Uday Roy, a health campaigner who was present at the sterilisation camp, said some of the women were shoved on rickshaws after surgery even though they were clearly in no fit state to make any kind of journey.
"A woman sterilised in the hospital fell off the rickshaw on the way to her home and she had to be hospitalised with severe injuries," said Roy who works at Debalaya Trust, a voluntary organisation providing free medical services.
Unlike China, India has no laws limiting the number of children a family can have.
However given its billion-plus population, local governments often offer incentives such as cars and electrical goods to couples volunteering for sterilisation.
COMMENTS (9)
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@Ali Khan: Dear Ali Khan, You are quite right to be disgusted In regard to India's defence spending, but the whole world seems to have gone mad with military spending, most particularly in the West. I will not go into detail, but countries such as the US, France and Britain are spending on defence as if there is no tomorrow, fighting ridiculous wars they cannot win, but at the same time sharply curtailing welfare and infrastructure spending.
Incredibel India thay are making a defenc deal worth$ 12billion sham on indians.
Shining India? eh ? anyone?
Shining India... Isn't it so
What a backward nation.
Another example of high Indian standards. This is OK as long as they do not criticize others. However, these type of low standards seem to be similar in the US and some other Western countries, where the bottom 20 percent receive very bad treatment. It almost looks as if the whole world needs to dismantle everything and start all over again.
Shame on the docs and the administration who forces them to perform the ops. You see these operations are considered a national emergency. Those poor women! My heart bleeds for them! I had the opportunity to stand up to the administration in India and I did it, but they brought me down to my knees you see! I left the country. I am not minting money in a foreign land but atleast I am not doing what I am not supposed to be doing! Haraam ki kamaai nahi chaahiye!
"Uday Roy, a health campaigner who was present at the sterilisation camp, said some of the women were shoved on rickshaws after surgery even though they were clearly in no fit state to make any kind of journey."
What was she doing when all these things were happening. When you see something, stop it! After the fact has meaning for those who suffered.
sterlisation is good..................but then so much in one day should not have been carried out when doc knew that they wont be able to accomodate so many .............shameful act!!!!!!!!