India confronts its mass sterilisation past and potential of demographic future

FIFTY YEARS AFTER EMERGENCY

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NEW DELHI: In the 1970s, before the Emergency was officially imposed, children in some rural areas often ran around unclothed -- until fear gripped families so tightly that even toddlers were dressed, not for modesty, but out of fear of forced sterilisation.

As India marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, memories of mass sterilisation campaigns -- many carried out under coercion -- continue to haunt survivors and influence public health discourse even today.

In 1976 alone, more than eight million sterilisations were conducted across India, most of them vasectomies. Many of these were not voluntary.

"It was a dark, dark period -- no less than a war. We didn't know what would happen the next day. I remember being so afraid that my family didn't travel outside Delhi until the Emergency ended," 78-year-old Ishrat Jahan, a resident of Okhla, Delhi said.