Barrack-room surgery in Bihar's backwaters

23rd January 2012

About a fortnight ago, as the sun was setting late one cold Saturday afternoon, a crowd steadily trooped into the premises of a State-run middle school in the backwaters of north-eastern Bihar. The group, comprising mostly of indigent, illiterate women, hailed from the extremely backward classes (EBC)-dominated hamlet of Kaparfora in Araria district and had assembled in anticipation of a sterilisation camp to be conducted by an NGO. After a long wait, eyewitnesses said, the tubectomy (or tubal ligation surgeries) commenced after dusk, lasting barely a couple of hours.