Sunita's face hardens when she talks about her operation. "I went to the clinic because I had heavy bleeding during menstruation", she says. "The doctor did an ultrasound, warned me that I might develop cancer, and told me I needed a hysterectomy that same day."
Sunita says she did not want surgery right away, that she wanted to discuss it with her husband first. The doctor said that the operation was urgent, so she went into the operating room a few hours later. More than two years have passed since that day, but Sunita says she still feels too weak to work or care for their children.
The leaders of Sunita’s village say that about 90% of women in the area have been operated on, some as young as 20. Doctors usually charge about €146 for the operation, which often means that families have to sell livestock and other property to raise the money they need.
For many, it is clear that something strange and deeply disturbing is happening. Reports of some Indian states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh suggest that an extraordinarily high number of women of all ages are having their uterus removed.
Dr. Gupta, a member of a local partner of Oxfam, is one of the many activists who believe that some private doctors are committing gross negligence. According to him, "People say that in some places, there are entire districts without uteruses. It seems that private doctors see this as an opportunity to earn money easily. They are operating on women who suffer from ailments that could be treated more easily and less invasively. "To date, there are no reliable data on the number of hysterectomies performed, but evidence suggests that they have become much more frequent in recent years.
With the intention of improving health care for poor people in rural areas, the government launched a national health security plan, the RSBY, in 2008. Under this scheme, families living below the poverty line can receive a subsidy for medical treatment of up to €360 in private hospitals which the state reimburses directly. But critics say the plan seems to be encouraging some clinics to perform unnecessary hysterectomies, using the poor in order to have access to government funds.
The individual states in India are in the process of implementing legislation passed by the central government to regulate the private healthcare sector. Meanwhile, women in India continue to have unnecessary hysterectomies.
LET'S INFORM THEM
Source: bbcnews
