Sterilisation turns fatal at a rural government hospital
- 3 years ago
The sexual health landscape in Bundelkhand is, like everything else in the region, ridden with deeply patriarchal mores. Safe sex practices, pregnancies, child care and maternal health, all fall under the ever-burgeoning list of responsibilities doled out to women in a cycle that perpetuates her inferior status to men.
In a scenario like this, the prevention of pregnancies also becomes an issue of serious concern for the woman. Burdened with children, domestic tasks and economic hardship, she often resorts to surgery, opting for a “nasbandi” (tubectomy).
The only other choice in this matter – a vasectomy for the man – is really not an option. It is an accepted fact, rarely questioned, and embedded in the very cultural fabric of Bundelkhand that the man shouldn't have the procedure because it will lead to his "kamzori," a physical and sexual weakness.
The ironies of the fear of debilitating post operation illness for men, especially in a context where women are cooking, labouring on the fields and at home, and birthing many babies, often dangerously, are painfully ignored.
Moreover, women are often pressurized to get tubectomies done by government health departments – a surreal world in which 'reproductive health' seamlessly overlaps with government targets and incentives. Threats are issued and no information is provided to women who are the purported objects of care.
And so it is that when Shanti from Chitrakoot district heads to a nasbandi operation, nobody questions why she never returned.
In a scenario like this, the prevention of pregnancies also becomes an issue of serious concern for the woman. Burdened with children, domestic tasks and economic hardship, she often resorts to surgery, opting for a “nasbandi” (tubectomy).
The only other choice in this matter – a vasectomy for the man – is really not an option. It is an accepted fact, rarely questioned, and embedded in the very cultural fabric of Bundelkhand that the man shouldn't have the procedure because it will lead to his "kamzori," a physical and sexual weakness.
The ironies of the fear of debilitating post operation illness for men, especially in a context where women are cooking, labouring on the fields and at home, and birthing many babies, often dangerously, are painfully ignored.
Moreover, women are often pressurized to get tubectomies done by government health departments – a surreal world in which 'reproductive health' seamlessly overlaps with government targets and incentives. Threats are issued and no information is provided to women who are the purported objects of care.
And so it is that when Shanti from Chitrakoot district heads to a nasbandi operation, nobody questions why she never returned.