Surreptitious Sterilizations: An Endangering Process

Abstract

Otempora! O mores! This cri decoeur will perhaps be evoked in those reading the spate of reports lately, on surreptitious "trials" on the non-surgical sterilization of women with quinacrine, being carried out by NG0s and private doctors in a host of places in the country. Many aspects of our socio-economy have come together in this scandalous "trial" of contraceptives now coming into India. These include the invidious nature of the efforts of international financial institutions to undermine the institution of the state in Third World countries indebted to them, the hypocrisy of the neo-liberal discourse on rights and the international euphoria on reproductive health as the solution to the health problems of women, accompanying the sustained propaganda, over the years,
that population growth lies at the heart of all social problems in these countries.