Sumati Devi knew before she arrived at the grimy government clinic in northern India that she would be paid to be sterilized. She didn’t know that she would lie on an operating table with bloody sheets, that the scalpel used on her would be stained with rust, or that she was supposed to get counseling on other birth control methods before consenting to have her fallopian tubes cut and tied. The main reason Devi agreed was that the $10 she received—about a week’s wages for a poor family—would help feed her three children. “I did it out of desperation,” says Devi, 25, as she lies on the concrete floor recuperating at the clinic in Bihar state. “We need the money. Health officials came to our home. They told us it would be best.
Source: Bloomberg Business Week
Read more

“People say they are coming from Bangladesh,” said Ilias Ali, director of the Global Hospital in Guwahati and a partner in the National Rural Health Mission’s quest to bring family planning to the chars. “But they are not Bangladeshis; they are from undivided Bengal. If we invest money to education and health facilities, their numbers will go down.”

Source: The New York Times
Read more

This document provides the list of schemes at central and state level which have included the two-child norm. 

Source: National Coalition Against Two Child Norm and Coercive Population Polices 
Read more

India began grappling with the magnitude of its population even before it became independent in 1947; it was labelled a crisis in the 1970s when the government of Indira Gandhi carried out mandatory sterilizations, en masse. But since those dark days, the country has emerged as a leader in the field, adopting the language of “reproductive health and rights.” Being surgically sterilized seems an extreme form of contraception for a young woman. 

Source: The Globe and Mail
Read More

Anita had the first of her three children at 16, and was sterilized at 23 in 2010. "I had to do a lot of work to convince my in-laws. I was so tired, after three pregnancies in four years. Eventually they agreed. The government gave me R1,000 ($20.) The [health] worker double-checked with my in-laws before she took me to the hospital, because she knew she would get in trouble if they hadn’t agreed." This report has similar stories like the story above mentioned. 

Source: The Globe and Mails
Read More

The Government of India issued an order dated 13 Feb 2013 that state governments should start paying the compensation directly to women. The states may ask for the compensation funds in their state PIPs.
What was most interesting is the 3rd Page of the GO which proposes how much money each state can ask for, and lists the amounts that have already been paid as compensation. Ironically it appears that Uttar Pradesh has paid out in the last 3 years an amount of Rs 4,02,29,983 as compensation (above 4 crores!) while Rajasthan has paid out Rs 5 crores and MP has paid out  3.6 crores.  

Source:  Jharkhand Rural Health Mission, Reprohealth Listserv
Read more