Health risks
During the 30 years to 2011, Beed experienced a significant lack of rain once every five years, but the number of years with a deficit doubled in the decade ending in 2022, the IIED researchers found.
Due to the lack of rain and other factors including debt and lack of awareness about welfare schemes, increasing numbers decided to migrate for work, according to the research that included interviews with more than 400 Beed families.
Contractors working for sugar mills prefer employing couples, where the husbands do the cane cutting and the wives take care of cleaning and loading. They earn about 250 Indian rupees (US$3) for each ton of cane they load and work between 12 and 16 hours per day, the report said.
Scared of seeing their meagre income dwindle and with no bathroom facilities available, many of the women seek hysterectomies at private clinics, the research found, adding that they were often unaware of the potential health risks.
Back and joint pain, osteoporosis, pelvic discomfort and mental health issues were among the common health problems reported by women who have undergone the procedure, said Bharadwaj.
“We spoke to 20–25-year-old women who were experiencing menopausal symptoms after undergoing hysterectomies,” she added.
Private hospitals perform hysterectomies for “quick money”, said Narendra Gupta, of Prayas, a non-profit based in Rajasthan, India, which was not involved in the new research.
A lawsuit filed by Gupta prompted India’s Supreme Court to tell the government last year to take action against doctors and hospitals performing unnecessary hysterectomies.
He said that women often faced ”indirect pressure” from their employers.
Following media reports - including a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation - about a surge in hysterectomies, Beed’s district administration said in 2019 that private hospitals would need its permission to perform the procedure.
But IIED researchers found many women were now simply going to private hospitals in adjacent districts.
“The action did not stop hysterectomies because it was only trying to treat the symptom, not the root cause,” Bharadwaj said.
This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.
