India: 11 women die after surgery at 'sterilisation camp'

Eleven women are dead and several more are in a critical condition in India after a government-run sterilisation programme went horrifically wrong.

The programme, in the central state of Chhattisgarh, is part of a national strategy aimed at controlling India's growing billion-plus population.

According to the Hindustan Times, authorities in the region said at least 60 women are in hospital after suffering complications from the sterilisation surgery over the weekend.

Ramnesh Murthy, the medical superintendent of the main hospital in Bilaspur, told reporters:

The women are part of a group of 83 who undertook a sterilisation procedure as part of a 'family planning' camp.

Shortly after the laparoscopic tubectomy procedures took place, many started to complain of severe abdominal pains and fever before being referred to hospital.

Medical officials have denied any negligence, but local critics have said that too many surgeries were carried out in efforts to meet national targets for sterilisations.

Chhattisgarh's chief minister Raman Singh has suspended four health bosses over the deaths and police have recieved a criminal complaint against the surgeon who alledgedly carried out the operations.

Mr Singh also annouced a three-man committee to carry out an inquiry into the tragic event.

State governments in India frequently set up mass sterlisation camps under a national plan whereby women are paid 1,400 rupees (£14) as an incentive to have the procedure.

It has been reported that - under pressure to meet targets - some local governments also offer other incentives such as cars and electrical goods like TVs to couples volunteering for sterilisation.

Health charities worry that paying women to undergo sterilisation at family planning camps is both dangerous and, by default, limits their contraceptive choices.

Deaths due to sterilisation are not a new problem in India, where some 4.6 million sterilisations were performed in 2013-14, according to Reuters.

The Hindustan Times says that government figures show 1,434 sterilisation deaths between 2003 and 2012, with 2009 being the worst year with 247 fatalities.

Pratap Singh, commissioner of Chhattisgarh's Department of Health and Family Welfare, told Reuters that the state's sterilisation program was entirely voluntary.