AIDWA
is absolutely shocked at the deaths of 8 women at the hands of the
health department, Chhattisgarh Government and appalled at the level of
negligence that has led to nearly 50 more women being hospitalised and
still in serious condition. These women were participating in a family
planning camp organised at a private hospital under the National Family
Planning Programme, in Takhatpur Block of Bilaspur District on 8th
November 2014. All of them were under 32 years of age and had put
their lives and their future at the hands of the health department,
which the department so negligently snatched away.
It is absolutely deplorable that in complete disregard of the Supreme Court’s order, the surgeon performed nearly 83 operations in 5-6 hours. The scale of this incident clearly shows that these operations were not done in clean and sterilized conditions. The quality of drugs and other consumables also come into question. The motivation for such government programmes to be held in private sector hospitals, rather than in government ones is questionable.
This is not the first time that women have been at the receiving end of the government’s pro-privatisation, pro-profit, and anti-poor policies in the last few years. In 2012 nearly 7000 women had their uteruses taken out by private hospitals within a period of 30 months in order to profit from the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana package money. From 2011 to 13 more than 80 people lost their eyesight due to botched up cataract operations. This year in Raipur city, more than 30 people died of Hepatitis E outbreak, of which nearly half were pregnant women.
All these incidents reflect the utter callousness of the government of Chhattisgarh in ensuring any kind of health for its people, especially poor and rural women.
The only step that the government has taken on this incident is to announce mere Rs. 4 lakh compensation for the families of the dead and suspension of the Director Health Services, State Family Planning Nodal Officer, BMO, Takhatpur, the operating Surgeon and Bilaspur CMHO. However, such incidents illustrate the systematic failures and the person responsible for taking all the critical decisions, the Health Minister, needs to be removed and legal action taken against him for the criminal lapse.
The 3-member probe team constituted to enquire about this incident are part of the government machinery itself. We fear that like in many previous cases, the enquiry will simply be an eye wash. We demand that the investigating team should include people who are not a part of the health department in Chhattisgarh, and respected experts. All the victims who are currently in serious condition should be given the best of care and it should be ensured that no further deaths occur
Such ‘Camps’ keep getting organised daily in various parts of the state. The government gives unwritten targets to all its health functionaries. Sterilizations are often dependent on doctors coming from other blocks, district or the private sector. This leads to huge delays and long waiting period for the women. Many a time the ‘camp’ has to get cancelled because the doctor does not come or he/she comes only if certain number of cases has arrived. All this leads to extreme harassment of the women patients.
The state still focuses on the more permanent methods of family planning rather than the temporary methods and subjects especially women to such surgeries. We demand that women be provided with safe choices for contraception. The public health system has to be made to function properly, with quality so that poor people do not get exploited by the private sector.
It is absolutely deplorable that in complete disregard of the Supreme Court’s order, the surgeon performed nearly 83 operations in 5-6 hours. The scale of this incident clearly shows that these operations were not done in clean and sterilized conditions. The quality of drugs and other consumables also come into question. The motivation for such government programmes to be held in private sector hospitals, rather than in government ones is questionable.
This is not the first time that women have been at the receiving end of the government’s pro-privatisation, pro-profit, and anti-poor policies in the last few years. In 2012 nearly 7000 women had their uteruses taken out by private hospitals within a period of 30 months in order to profit from the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana package money. From 2011 to 13 more than 80 people lost their eyesight due to botched up cataract operations. This year in Raipur city, more than 30 people died of Hepatitis E outbreak, of which nearly half were pregnant women.
All these incidents reflect the utter callousness of the government of Chhattisgarh in ensuring any kind of health for its people, especially poor and rural women.
The only step that the government has taken on this incident is to announce mere Rs. 4 lakh compensation for the families of the dead and suspension of the Director Health Services, State Family Planning Nodal Officer, BMO, Takhatpur, the operating Surgeon and Bilaspur CMHO. However, such incidents illustrate the systematic failures and the person responsible for taking all the critical decisions, the Health Minister, needs to be removed and legal action taken against him for the criminal lapse.
The 3-member probe team constituted to enquire about this incident are part of the government machinery itself. We fear that like in many previous cases, the enquiry will simply be an eye wash. We demand that the investigating team should include people who are not a part of the health department in Chhattisgarh, and respected experts. All the victims who are currently in serious condition should be given the best of care and it should be ensured that no further deaths occur
Such ‘Camps’ keep getting organised daily in various parts of the state. The government gives unwritten targets to all its health functionaries. Sterilizations are often dependent on doctors coming from other blocks, district or the private sector. This leads to huge delays and long waiting period for the women. Many a time the ‘camp’ has to get cancelled because the doctor does not come or he/she comes only if certain number of cases has arrived. All this leads to extreme harassment of the women patients.
The state still focuses on the more permanent methods of family planning rather than the temporary methods and subjects especially women to such surgeries. We demand that women be provided with safe choices for contraception. The public health system has to be made to function properly, with quality so that poor people do not get exploited by the private sector.
