The Supreme Court has issued notices to the central and the state governments regarding the unsafe and unethical sterilization at Araria district in Bihar in January this year in violation of government guidelines and basic human rights.

Acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO called Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), the court issued notices to the central as well as the state governments asking them to reply and furnish details about the incident.

In the PIL, petitioner and health rights activist Devika Biswas revealed the gruesome details of a January 2012 sterilization camp at the Kaparfora Government Middle School, Araria District in Bihar in a February 2012 fact-finding report. With the explicit permission of the State Health Society, an NGO and a private doctor used the government middle school as an operating theater for at least 53 sterilization surgeries on poor, Dalit, and scheduled caste women.

Terming the incident as a clear violation of government guidelines and basic human rights, the PIL said that the doctor performed the surgeries at night, under torchlight. During the two hours he was operating, the doctor did not wash his hands, change gloves, or wear a surgical gown and cap. After their surgeries, untrained NGO workers placed the women on paddy straw provided by the families. The doctor operated on one pregnant woman, Jitni Devi, who miscarried days after her surgery. The doctor and NGO staff left three women profusely bleeding, including Saraswati Devi, who spent eight days recovering in the hospital. Most of the women from the camp have had to seek costly private care. None of the women were counseled, the petitioner in the PIL said.

The horrific human rights violations extend beyond these events in Bihar. Doctors and health facilities across the county routinely flaunt the ethical and procedural guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Constitutional obligations, and international norms. The Public Interest Litigation specifically outlines examples of coerced and unsafe sterilizations in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) is a collective of lawyers and social activists dedicated to the use of the legal system to advance human rights in India and the sub-continent.