Burden to bear

Living in the shadow of old state policies, vulnerable tribal groups demand their right to opt for family planning

- TARAN DEOL

ON JUNE 11, some 600 tribal men and women from Alluri Sitharamaraju district in Andhra Pradesh were reportedly taken to a private hospital in Visakhapatnam for surgery for family planning. Hospital representatives had promised them 5,000 each, free transport, food and stay, says Rama Rao Dora, convenor of Andhra Pradesh Adivasi Joint Action Committee, a volunteer group that works on tribal welfare.

Soon, the committee lodged a complaint with the state's Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA). Dora tells Down To Earth that all the people were discharged following ITDA's intervention on June 16. By then, at least 129 people had undergone the sterilisation surgery. Hospital authorities, however, deny the claim. ITDA has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Andhra Pradesh Adivasi Joint Action Committee has raised several concerns about the incident. For instance, people were shifted from one facility to another and medical protocols were not followed. But its biggest concern is most of the people taken to the hospital for sterilisation surgery belong to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGS), such as Kondu, Bagatha, Koraja and Valmiki. In Andhra Pradesh, these communities are prohibited from availing surgical procedures for family planning to avert a decline in their population.

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