Birth-control surgery didn’t kill anyone: BMC

Mumbai: A Right to Information (RTI) query by activist Chetan Kothari has revealed that as many as 33 women, who underwent birth-control surgery, died in the last 10 years.

However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) deputy executive health officer (family planning and welfare department), Dr Mangala Gomare, said that the women died after the surgery and not due to surgery-related complications.

Tubectomy is a surgical procedure for sterilisation where a woman’s fallopian tubes are clamped and sealed for preventing further pregnancies.

This birth-control procedure is considered routine but the RTI query revealed that in the past 10 years, 33 city-based women who underwent this procedure have lost their lives.

Clarifying that the tubectomy procedures were not to be blamed, Dr Gomare said, “In our death review analysis, we have established that none of these deaths were directly related to post-surgical complications of tubectomies.”

She added that under the National Family Planning Programme, the families of the deceased women were gives Rs 200,000 within a week of the surgery. Families of those who died a month after the surgery were paid Rs 50,000 as compensation.

Mr Kothari however said, “There is no state-of-the-art machinery and well-trained doctors to handle such cases. Civic hospitals do treat such patients on priority basis but sometimes, they are neglected.”

“Thirty-three women, who underwent birth-control surgery, have died in the past 10 years, as revealed under RTI, which is certainly quite shocking,” he said.

“Compared to women who undergo birth-control surgery, the number of men who use birth-control measures is very few. The BMC needs to spread more awareness on male family planning i.e. sterilisation,” Mr Kothari added.