Doctor blamed for India sterilisation deaths turns himself in

NEW DELHI // The doctor accused of negligence in the deaths of at least 13 women during sterilisation procedures has turned himself into police.

Dr RK Gupta, who had been hiding since Saturday’s operations, was arrested at a relative’s home near Bilaspur city late on Wednesday, said Dr SK Mandal, the chief medical officer of Chhattisgarh state.

Dr Gupta denied responsibility for the deaths and blamed medication given to the women after the surgery.

Eighty-three women had the surgeries as part of a free government-run mass sterilisation campaign and were sent home that evening.

But dozens became ill and were rushed in ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur.

Dr Mandal said at least 13 women died and dozens more were hospitalised, including at least 16 fighting for their lives.

Dr Gupta had performed more than 80 sterilisation surgeries in six hours – a clear breach of government protocol, which prohibits surgeons from performing more than 30 sterilisations in a day, Dr Mandal said.

He said that investigators were also trying to determine whether the women, all of them poor villagers, had been given tainted medicines.

“I am not guilty. I have been performing surgeries for a long time and there has never been any problem,” Dr Gupta said in Bilaspur around the time of his arrest.

“I have a history of completing up to 200-300 surgeries in one day,” he said. “There are no written guidelines, but what we have been told verbally is that we shouldn’t perform more than 30 operations in a day.”

He said that all the patients began throwing up and complaining of dizziness and weakness after they were given medication following the operations.

Experts say the deaths are the result of a complete lack of medical oversight and the fact that the government in India sets sterilisation targets as part of its efforts to stabilise population.

In the 1970s, prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed a policy of forcibly sterilising men who had already fathered two children. Opponents at the time said the programme targeted unmarried and poor men, with doctors given bonuses for operating on low-income patients.

India’s government had said it stopped setting targets for sterilising women in the 1990s. But doctors and human-rights workers have alleged for years that targets exist – which would lead to inevitable coercion in villages where most people have very limited access to both education and health care.

Dr Mandal has said that Dr Gupta was likely under pressure to achieve his district’s target of about 15,000 sterilisations.

In January, Dr Gupta was feted by the state government for performing 50,000 laparoscopic tubectomies.

Sterilisations continue to be the most popular method of birth control in India, with many women opting for them because a one-time operation can help them take charge of their fertility.

But incentive and government quotas make doctors pressure patients into surgery rather than advising them on other contraception options.

Women in most states are promised 1,400 rupees (Dh85) when they choose to have laparoscopic, or “keyhole”, sterilisation surgeries like those conducted in Bilaspur.

The procedure is one of the most commonly performed minimally invasive surgeries, and is usually done under a local anaesthetic.

The relatives of some of the women who died said that they were bullied into getting the surgery.

Most of the women had very young babies, some of whom they were still breastfeeding.

“I hope that he can never sleep in peace,” said Sadhu, the husband of one woman who died after the operation. “The same thing should happen to him. Then he will know what it is like to lose someone in your family,” Sadhu, who uses one name, said.

India has one of the world’s highest rates of sterilisation among women, with about 37 per cent undergoing such operations compared with 29 per cent in China, according to the United Nations.

About 4.6 million Indian women were sterilised in 2011 and 2012, according to the government.

In comparison, less than 1 per cent of men choose to undergo vasectomies even though the cash incentive is higher at about 2,000 rupees. Cultural taboos prevent men from opting for the operation.

* Associated Press