Quinacrine Sterilisations Banned

Abstract

On the 16th of March 1998, at the final hearing of the writ petition filed by the All India Democratic Women's Association and the faculty of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, the Drug Controller of India gave a written commitment to the Supreme Court that the use of the drug Quinacrine for female sterilization is being banned in India. Further, that the Government by notification in the official Gazette "prohibits the manufacture, sale or distribution" of Quinacrine in pellet form.
Penalty for violation will include "imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than five years but which may extend to a term of life... and with fine which shall be not less than ten thousand rupees".