Published: 7:39PM Wednesday November 12, 2014 Source: AP
Women who underwent sterilisation surgeries receive treatment in Bilaspur, India. - Source: AP
At least 11 women are dead and 20 others seriously ill after undergoing free sterilisation operations in India.
The deaths highlight the risks women face in reproductive health in a country struggling with high population growth and widespread poverty.
A total of 83 women, all villagers under the age of 32, had the operations this week as part of the free sterilisation campaign and were sent home that evening.
But dozens later became ill and were rushed in ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur, a city in central Chhattisgarh state.
As of today, at least 11 women had died, District Magistrate Siddharth Komal Pardeshi told Press Trust of India.
The apparent cause of death was either blood poisoning or hemorrhagic shock, which occurs when a person has lost too much blood, state deputy health director Amar Singh said, though the preliminary results from autopsies are yet to be released.
About 20 others were in critical care, and the central government was rushing a team of doctors to Bilaspur to help with their treatment.
"Their condition is very serious. Blood pressure is low," said Dr. Ramesh Murty at CIMS hospital, one of the facilities where the sick women were taken.
"We are now concentrating on treating them, not on what caused this."
India's government - long concerned about pervasive poverty among its rapidly growing 1.3 billion population- performs millions of free sterilisations to both women and men who want to avoid the risk and cost of having a baby.
The vast majority of patients, however, are poor women - paid a one-time incentive fee to undergo the surgery of about $10-$20, or the equivalent of about a week's pay for a poor person in India.
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