Sterilization is the most popular method of contraception in India. The 1992-93 National Family Health Survey found that of the 36.2 percent of eligible couples using any modern method, most (30.7 percent) had been sterilized and only 5.5 percent were using temporary methods (IIPS 1995).

The existing structural nature of women's work (domestic as well as non-domestic) has severe built-in hazards for women (reproductive and otherwise) which no amount of first rate quality of care, total coverage and/or access to health services alone can deal with.

The quinacrine trials raise a host of questions regarding the safety of this method of sterilization and the methodology used to assess this.

The health of the general population as well as specific groups (infants, women, etc) has for long been an important concern for development studies.

In many developing countries, women's activities, traditionally confined to the household, have changed over time.

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.

The tribal population groups from 7.95 percent of the total population of India. About 67.76 million persons have been enumerated in the country (excluding Jammu & Kashmir) as members of the Scheduled Tribes (1991 census).