Sterilisation Prohibited for Chhattisgarh's Baiga Women, Still They are Operated on to Meet Targets

Stertilisation of Baigas - a primitive and endangered tribe in Chhattisgarh - is prohibited. Yet, last week, 30-year-old Chaiti Bai became the 13th woman to die in the botched sterilizations of Bilaspur. She was also among the half-a-dozen women sterilized from Baigatola, a village nearly 100 km from Bilaspur. Not all of the Baiga women know about the law and in the tribal-dominated area, and they are persuaded or forced to the sterilization centres by health workers bent on meeting government set targets.