Four women die in India due to botched sterilisation procedure

Four women in India died due to a botched sterilisation procedure in a government-run medical camp.

According to reports by AFP, nine other women have been hospitalised after a similar procedure. 

A medical officer in the southern state of Telangana said more than three dozen women were operated on at a state-run sterilisation camp last Thursday and four of them died over the weekend due to suspected sepsis, AFP reported.

In efforts to keep population growth under control the country has been conducting sterilisation for seven decades, but doctors conducting these procedures have been accused of negligence. 

Authorities said all the victims were in their 20s and an investigation is ongoing.

“We are awaiting the postmortem reports to know the exact cause of death before we proceed further,” the official told AFP.

The Indian government is expected to give the families of the victims 500,000 rupees (about R107,920) after protest action by members of the public who accused doctors of negligence. 

India was embroiled in controversy in the 1970s when millions of civilians were forcibly sterilised.  

TimesLIVE