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6,189 in 2010-11 to 4,943 during 201112, says a research paper published in
in 2018. That’s where the private insurance companies entered the scene. For example in Beed, 99 private hospitals carried out 4,605 hysterectomies from 2016-17 to 2018-19, according to a committee headed by the district civil surgeon. There is also a link between government health insurance and hysterectomy. Several reports have emerged from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh highlighting hysterectomy to be the leading reason for health insurance claims.
A study presented at All India Congress of Obstetrician and Gynaecology by Neelima Singh says that hysterectomy rate was high in villages which were connected to highways and having access to healthcare. “We think they are beneficial, but actually they are not. It is leading to over medicalisation,” she says. The women Singh spoke to did not have insurance and paid the bill through their hard earnings.
An analogy to hysterectomy can be found in C-section deliveries across India. A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report in March 2017 found C-section deliveries had increased from 33 per cent in 2013-14 to 45 per cent during 2016-17 in Telangana. Private hospitals were on the higher side (67 per cent) as compared to public health facility centres (33 per cent). The World Health Organization’s standard is 10-15 per cent. Medical corruption may be widespread, but the curious case of the missing wombs has not been reported. This when emerging science is debunking existing medical beliefs.
If medical ethics have been broken, intervention should also be surgical. Public awareness is needed for women of all ages. For instance, it must
including standard treatment protocols can ensure rationality of procedures in private hospitals, says Abhay Shukla, national co-convenor of the People’s Health Movement in India. “Regulations are neither strictly implemented nor action taken against errant doctors,” says Singh.
“If a private hospital is found to be doing high number of hysterectomies, there must be a clinical audit by the government,” says Manisha Tokale, president of Jagar Pratisthan, a social organisation in Beed district. “Women rights organisations should use the courts so that such misogynistic practices are stopped,” says Supreme Court lawyer Ranjana Kumari. The government and the medical establishment must step in now.