New Delhi, Apr 16: India TV in its prime time show on Monday exposed a nationwide racket in hysterectomies in which more than 20,000 women have lost their uteruses. All this for the sake of earning quick money through the National Health Insurance Scheme meant for women living below poverty line.
The expose covered the states of Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, where doctors performed hysterectomies on women in cases these were unnecessary.
The expose showed how women named Kiran Devi, Rani Devi, Sunita Devi, Anita and Manju told India TV reporters how they lost their uteruses to unscrupulous doctors, out to make money in Samastipur, Bihar.
In Chhatisgarh alone, more than 2,500 women lost their uteruses because of machinations by unscrupulous doctors.
The root at this racket is the National Health Guarantee Scheme cards given to women living below poverty line.
Several thousand nursing homes in Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, took advantage of these cards and cheated the women by carrying out hysterectomies where they were not required.
India TV reports Rajiv Ranjan, Nitish Chandra and Sangeeta Pranavendra met the women who have lost their uteruses because of this racket.
India TV reporter Rajiv Ranjan went to ten villages of Samastipur in Bihar, where he found hundreds of women, whose uteruses have been extracted by unscrupulous doctors.
In case studies recorded, Rani Devi, aged 29 years, of Raghunathpur Bela village of Samastipur, has two children. She complained of stomach ache. People from Anganwadi took her to a doctor, who said there was problem with her uterus, which would be extracted.
Rani Devi said, there was a cyst in ovary which was said to be removed, but nobody saw, what was removed. The doctors didn't show it to our guardians, she said.
In Lat Vaseypur of Samastipur district, uteruses of three women in Sunita's family were removed - hers, her mother-in-law's and her sister-in-law's.
Sunita said, the doctor told her she had appendicitis which was about to burst and there was swelling in her uterus.
In Mahasi village of Samastipur, 25-year-old Anita, having two children, had her uterus removed in a hospital, where she was taken by an Anganwadi worker.
The India TV report named Krishna Nursing Home, Mishra Nursing Home, Lifeline Hospital, Mala Nursing Home and several such nursing homes in Bihar, where it is prominently written that BPL (below poverty line) women are given free treatment.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, district magistrate, Sheikhpura said, there have been large scale removal of uteruses in his district.
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (National Health Insurance Scheme) has become such a craze among private nursing homes that they are ready to give bribes to be enlisted in this scheme.
The root lies in the diseases covered under the scheme. The highest fees of Rs 10,000 is paid by the Centre for removal of uterus, and unscrupulous nursing homes take advantage of this provision.
According to Kundan Kumar, former district magistrate of Samastipur, out of 14,851 operations done under RSBY in Samastipur during 2011-2012, 5,503 operations related to removal of uterus.
Kundan Kumar held a camp of government doctors in his collectorate, and nearly 2,500 women patients were called in, whose uteruses had been removed.
"Out of 2,500 women, there were 717 women who said their uteruses were removed without their concurrence. Surgeries were performed on 124 minors, and 23 cases were found where payments were taken but no surgeries were done", said Kundan Kumar
