In an incident highlighting the extreme negligence of the Bihar health department, nearly two dozen women were sterilised without anaesthesia in the Khagaria district of the state. The incident was reported on Wednesday, when the women visited the Alauli and Parbatta health centers in the district, for tubal ligation.
(Tubal ligation is a surgical procedure for female sterilisation in which the fallopian tubes are permanently blocked, clipped, or removed. This prevents the fertilisation of eggs by sperm and thus the implantation of a fertilised egg. Tubal ligation is considered a permanent method of sterilisation and birth control.)
At the health centers, the medical staff pinned the women down on the bed, held their hands and legs tightly, put cotton in their mouth and performed the operation without anaesthesia.
The victims suffered unbearable pain during and after the surgery.
Commenting on the incident, Amarnath Jha, the civil surgeon of Khagaria said, "We have initiated an inquiry into the matter and have asked for an explanation from the NGO responsible for the inhuman act."
The health department has given the contract for family planning operations to the NGO named Global Development Initiative.
"We have sought clarification from the NGO and also initiated the process of blacklisting it. Preliminary investigation reveals that the NGO was involved in an inhuman act," Jha said.
The NGO is using a process called "tubectomy" to make the patients unconscious, an official said, adding, the process did not work on the patients at the time of the operation.
The state government presently pays Rs 2,100 for every tubectomy.
The official said that this act of the NGO is a criminal offence as they have risked the life of patients.
A similar incident took place in the Araria district in 2012 when 53 women underwent family planning operations without anaesthesia.
At that time, an FIR was registered against the errant medical officials and three of them were jailed.
(With inputs from IANS)
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