Patna: Authorities in Bihar were perplexed after a woman was shown to have delivered 12 children within a year.
The case came to light following a thorough investigation into the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) spends in Kaimur, a south-western district more than 200km from the state capital Patna.
The investigation found one woman, listed in hospital registers as Mina Devi, 29, not only delivered 12 babies in a year but also underwent 14 tubectomy operations now widely known as “womb scam”.
Authorities say 47 NGOs and nursing homes, in alleged connivance with government health officials, faked tubectomy registrations and entered fictitious names of beneficiaries in the registers to siphon off government funds available under the NRHM.
Mina Devi happens to be one such fictitious name among many figuring on the list of government beneficiaries who allegedly underwent procedures.
“Our investigation has revealed one Mina Devi underwent 12 deliveries between July 7, 2009 to February 9, 2010 and was operated on for tubectomy 14 times between November 8, 2009 and March 28, 2010,” deputy superintendent of police Dilip Kumar Jha, who investigated the case, told journalists on Thursday.
The investigation further showed at least 11 women allegedly delivered children five to 12 times in a year, besides undergoing tubectomy operations for around a dozen times during the same period.
The inquiry also showed one of the doctors claimed to have conducted as many as 725 operations within just a week.
Finding the matter serious, the police have issued arrest warrants against a former civil surgeon and heads of several NGOs now indicated in the tubectomy scam.
However, all of them are absconding.
“We are soon praying to the court to issue attachment orders against the absconder,” local Kaimur district superintendent of police Harpreet Kaur told the media Thursday.
According to a report of the state government, more than 500 poor women had their uteruses removed by doctors allegedly keen to avail incentives under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
In May this year, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) asked the government to pay compensation of Rs180 million (Dh9.94 million) to women who lost the ability to give birth through the acts of the greedy doctors.
The Commission also stated that the surgeries performed on the young women were totally unwarranted.
“Denying the women their pleasure of motherhood is a flagrant violation of human rights. Such crimes can’t be allowed in any civil society,” was how the SHRC chairperson Justice Bilal Nazki had observed while passing the order, adding, “This act is barbaric and prima facie it appears these surgeries were only performed to get incentives by way of package amounts by insurance companies”.
As per the report, a total of 554 women had their uteruses removed by doctors during the course of surgeries although none of them had any serious complications.
One of the victims, who was 20 years old, had got only just married.
Of the rest, 103 were in the age-group of 20-30, 288 in the age-group of 30-40 while the remaining 163 women were above 40 years of age.
So far, the Commission has identified 540 women.
While taking into account their age groups, the Commission ordered the government to pay a monetary compensation of Rs200,500 to women in the age-group of 28 to 40 and Rs150,000 to those above 40 years of age.
During the course of trial lasting for several months, the Commission also found that the victim women had their uteruses removed against their wishes. Taking the matter seriously, the Commission has also sought severe punishment against such erring doctors. Reports said the Commission has asked the Medical Council of India to identify the erring doctors and initiate action against them.
