As India marks 50 years since the Emergency (1975–77), the state-sponsored forced sterilisation remains one of the under acknowledged episodes in Indian democracy.

• Known popularly as nasbandi, this campaign was conducted under the guise of population control but was, in essence, a coercive and violent form of state repression.

About Sanjay Gandhi’s Five-Point Program for Social Progress During the Emergency

• This program aimed to address societal issues, with the primary focus on Family Planning, driven by Sanjay Gandhi’s conviction that rapid population growth was the biggest impediment to India’s economic and social advancement. 
• The program also included initiatives for:
  • Literacy: Promoting education with the slogan “One Teach One”.
  • Anti-Dowry: Addressing the practice of dowry, though this received less focus.
  • Eradication of Casteism: Aiming for social equality, also less emphasized.
  • Tree Plantation: Encouraging environmental protection and cleanliness.
    • However, the most aggressively pursued and controversial aspect was forced sterilization.

About Sterilization

• Sterilization is a surgical procedure that permanently stops reproductive capacity, typically used for family planning. 
• Usually, it is a voluntary choice. 
• During the Emergency, however, the State itself sponsored and forcefully implemented this procedure on a massive scale under the guise of population control. 
• Global agencies like the Ford Foundation, World Bank, and IMF had supported population control efforts in India.
• This approach finds some theoretical roots in the Malthusian concept, which posits that population grows much faster than resources, leading to poverty and crime, thus necessitating population control.

Targeted Communities and Eugenics Allegations

• The forced sterilization campaign disproportionately targeted specific vulnerable sections of society. The primary targets in India included:
• Poor individuals, Slum dwellers, Dalits, Minorities, Rural communities.

Sterilisation: Eugenic Exercise

• This refers to the science or belief system aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population, often by selective breeding or other forms of genetic intervention.
• Some experts argue that an element of eugenics was present in this policy, where the “unfit” or “unqualified” were denied the right to procreate.

Global Precedents of Forced Sterilization

• United States (1907-1979): Over 60,000 individuals, including those with mental illness, the poor, Blacks, Native Americans, and Latin women, were sterilized, often with an element of eugenics.
• Sweden (1935–1976): 63,000 people deemed “unfit” sterilised; the government later issued an apology and compensation.
• Nazi Germany: Around 400,000 sterilised under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.
• Peru (1990s): Under President Fujimori, 300,000 rural and indigenous women were sterilised.
• China: The one-child policy led to millions of coerced sterilisations, especially targeting ethnic minorities.

Methods of Enforcement and Resistance 

• Policy Integration: Obtaining essential services like ration supplies from Public Distribution System (PDS) shops was made conditional on presenting a sterilization certificate.
• Quotas and Incentives: Ground-level officials, including block officials, Panchayat heads, teachers, doctors, and local police, were given targets for sterilizations.
  • Those who met targets received rewards, while those undergoing sterilization were offered cash, rice, or job preferences. 
  • Conversely, failure to comply could result in job loss or salary cuts.
• Coercion and Fear: The program was also used to suppress dissent and instill fear.
  • Participants in the Total Revolution (Sampoorna Kranti) protest movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan in Bihar were forcibly sterilized to deter protests. 
  • Individuals such as ticketless train passengers, daily wage laborers, beggars, undertrial prisoners, and even wandering monks or “hippie-looking” youth were subjected to the procedure.
• Flight and Violence: The scale of coercion led many villagers to flee their homes and hide in forests, pursued by police. 
  • There were instances of violent suppression of resistance, such as the Khalpur massacre in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on October 16, 1976, where 25 people were shot for protesting forced sterilization. The Incident was known as Nasbandi Goli Kand (Sterilisation Bullet Masacre).
  • In Haryana’s Utavada village, police raided, cut electricity, and forcibly sterilized 180 people.

The Emergency’s abuses

• The people referred to the Emergency as the ‘nasbandi ka vakat (the sterilisation time)’, and the very term Emergency (Āpātkāl) became synonymous with sterilisation, a stigma for many in public life
• The Shah Commission, set up to investigate the Emergency’s abuses, recorded 1,778 sterilisation-related deaths and hundreds of injuries. 
  • It also noted that thousands of sterilisations happened unofficially
• Data from researchers Pai Panandiker and K.G. Jolly:
  • 1.3 million vasectomies in 1975
  • 2.6 million in 1976
  • 8.3 million total sterilisations in 1977 — the largest coerced campaign globally.
• Within a year, total sterilisations — male and female combined — jumped to approximately 8.3 million in 1977, making it the most extensive coerced sterilisation campaign ever conducted globally. 
• The northern States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh turned into the ‘vasectomy belt’.
• The Emergency’s sterilisation campaign revealed what Cameroonian political theorist Achille Mbembe called the ‘necropolitics’.
• The forced sterilization experiment was an undeniable failure, contributing significantly to the Congress party’s crushing defeat in the 1977 elections following the Emergency.

Lessons From Emergency

• Responsible Use of Power: Governments must always exercise their power with responsibility, avoiding abuses and overreach.
• Importance of Human Rights: Every individual possesses the fundamental right over their own body, and human rights must be protected at all costs.
• State Accountability: The State must be accountable for its actions and provide justifications for its decisions, ensuring transparency.
• Protecting Democracy: Democracy, regardless of its maturity, requires constant vigilance and protection to prevent its subversion.

Conclusion

The devastating impact of forced sterilization underscores the critical need for ethical governance, respect for individual liberties, and robust democratic safeguards in India.

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