Doctor arrested over 13women's deaths

A woman who underwent sterilization surgery at a government mass sterilization "camp" is moved to a private hospital in Bilaspur, India, on Thursday. Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters

A doctor who carried out sterilization procedures on 13 women who later died in central India has been arrested.

Dr R.K. Gupta denied responsibility for the deaths, and said they were caused by tainted drugs administered after the surgery.

Gupta, who had been in hiding since Saturday's operations, was arrested at a relative's home near the city of Bilaspur late on Wednesday, said Dr S.K. Mandal, the chief medical officer of Chhattisgarh state.

A total of 83 women who had the procedure as part of a free government-run mass sterilization campaign, were sent home that evening. But dozens became ill and were taken by ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur.

Mandal said at least 13 women died and dozens more were hospitalized, including at least 16 who are still fighting for their lives.

Gupta performed more than 80 sterilization procedures in six hours - a clear breach of government protocol, which prohibits surgeons from performing more than 30 sterilizations in a day, Mandal said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the women, who were all poor villagers, had been given tainted drugs.

Gupta said, "I have been performing surgery for a long time and there has never been any problem."

He said the patients began to vomit and complain of dizziness and weakness after they were given medication following the operations.

Experts say the deaths are the result of a lack of medical oversight and the fact that the government sets sterilization targets as part of its efforts to stabilize the soaring population.

In the 1970s, then-prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed a policy of forcibly sterilizing men who had already fathered two children.

Opponents at the time said the program targeted unmarried and poor men, with doctors given bonuses for operating on low-income patients.

Inevitable coercion

The government said it stopped setting targets for sterilizing women in the 1990s. However, doctors and human rights workers have alleged for years that targets exist, and say this leads to inevitable coercion in villages where most people have very limited access to education and healthcare.

Mandal said earlier that Gupta was probably under pressure to achieve his district's target of about 15,000 sterilizations.

In January, Gupta was praised by the state government for performing the procedure, known as a laparoscopic tubectomy, on 50,000 women.

Sterilization continues to be the most popular method of family planning in India, with many women opting for it because it involves only one operation.

India has one of the world's highest rates of sterilization among women, with about 37 percent undergoing such operations, according to the United Nations. About 4.6 million Indian women were sterilized in 2011 and 2012, according to the government.

AP - Reuters