India’s dark history includes a massive forced sterilization campaign that left thousands dead from poorly performed operations. The campaign targeted 8 million men. Science journalist Mara Hvistendahl reports that in 1976 alone, doctors sterilized 6.2 million Indian men – a number fifteen times higher than Nazi sterilizations. This mass sterilization campaign became one of the darkest chapters during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 21-month “Emergency” period.
The survivors have finally broken their silence about this national tragedy after fifty years. Sanjay Gandhi’s notorious “nasbandi” (sterilization) camps led to the sterilization of 11 million people. Official records show nearly 4 million procedures took place in 2013-2014 alone. The trauma remains fresh in the minds of those who lived through this ordeal. The program’s devastating effects continue to impact India’s reproductive rights today, with more than 700 people dying from surgical complications between 2009 and 2012.
Village breaks silence 50 years after forced sterilizations
A decades-long silence has finally shattered in the small village of Uttawar, located in northern India’s Haryana state about 90km from New Delhi. The 50th anniversary of the Emergency brings forth memories, and Mohammad Deenu, now in his late 90s, stands as the last living witness to a night that changed his community forever.
Survivors recall trauma and fear
Most men fled into jungles or hid in wells when government officials surrounded Uttawar on a cold November night in 1976. Deenu stayed behind. “When everyone was running to save themselves, some elders realized that if no one is found, it would create even bigger, long-lasting troubles,” Deenu recalled from his torn wooden cot. Police seized him and 14 friends, forced them into vehicles, and took them to sterilization camps.
Noor, who was deemed too young at under 15 for vasectomy, remembers the horror. “They broke the doors and everything that came in their way; they shattered everything they could see. To make our lives worse, they mixed sand in flour. There was not a single home in the village that could cook food for the next four days”.
The terror spread beyond Uttawar. Men all over India received promises of land and money, while public officials faced job loss threats or salary cuts for missing sterilization quotas. Police dragged resisters from their homes under darkness.
Generational silence finally ends
“People who ran away, or those who were taken away by the police, did not return for weeks,” Noor explained. “Uttawar was like a graveyard, just silence”.
Locals still call it “that night of scare.” The survivors’ psychological trauma persists. “Some of the people were never able to recover from that mental shock, and spent years of their lives anxious or disturbed,” said Kasim, a local social worker. “Sterilization is a curse that has haunted Uttawar every night since”.
The village head Abdul Rehman’s defiance became legendary when officials demanded he surrender some men before the raid. “Outside our village, no one would remember this name, but we do,” said Tajamul Mohammad, now 63. Village legend tells that Rehman told officials: “I will not give away a dog from my area, and you are demanding humans from me. Never!”
Notwithstanding that, his resistance couldn’t stop the eventual raid that traumatized the community.
India forcibly sterilized 8m men: One village remembers, 50 years later
Uttawar’s story reflects what happened in rural India, especially to vulnerable communities. Mainstream narratives centered on urban areas, but “the real victims of forcible sterilization and arbitrary demolition were Dalits and Muslims at the bottom of the social heap, most vulnerable to the depredations of the State”.
Police held Deenu for eight days before taking him to a sterilization camp in Palwal, the nearest town. His wife Saleema gave birth to their only child, a son, a month later. Deenu’s family now includes three grandsons and several great-grandchildren.
Deenu grins as he shares his perspective: “We are the ones who saved this village. Otherwise, Indira would have lit this village on fire”.
The trauma exceeds generations. “We felt hunted,” said 83-year-old Amina Hasan from Aligarh. “We were poor but had dignity. They took that away. In our area, men started hiding in fields and wells when officials came around”.
These elderly survivors break a fifty-year silence by sharing their stories. Their accounts ensure that one of India’s darkest chapters lives in memory.
How Emergency enabled mass sterilization without consent
Image Source: The Economic Times
A late-night radio announcement marked the beginning of one of history’s largest forced sterilization campaigns. “The President has declared an Emergency. There is nothing to panic about,” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told the nation on June 25, 1975.
Indira Gandhi suspends civil rights in 1975
Political turmoil and an adverse court ruling threatened Gandhi’s position, leading her to impose a state of emergency. She cited “internal disturbances” and threats to national security. The government suspended civil liberties, suppressed dissent, and arrested thousands of people. Notable freedom fighters like Jayaprakash Narayan and Jivatram Kripalani were among those detained.
Gandhi’s administration gained unprecedented powers during the Emergency. She postponed elections, censored the press, and turned India into a one-party state. Her parliamentary majority let her rewrite laws freely. She could also use presidential “Ordinances” that completely bypassed Parliament.
This political climate created perfect conditions to implement drastic population control measures without any democratic oversight.
Sanjay Gandhi’s unofficial power and sterilization agenda
Sanjay Gandhi emerged as the central figure behind India’s sterilization campaign. He held no official position yet wielded extraordinary influence in government. Journalist Mark Tully noted that as his mother’s informal advisor, Sanjay “terrorized the administration, setting up what was in effect a police state”.
His five-point program became the blueprint that would shape the nation. The program included literacy, tree planting, caste eradication, dowry abolition, and family planning. Population control, specifically sterilization, became his personal mission.
Sanjay took a “target oriented and time bound” approach. He gave sterilization quotas to chief ministers who had to meet them regardless of the means. Government officials faced mounting pressure:
- States competed against each other in sterilization “performance”
- Government institutions, including schools, recruited sterilization candidates
- Officials who delivered high sterilization numbers gained Sanjay’s favor
One report noted: “The number of trees planted, houses demolished and sterilizations done became the measure of closeness of these various groups to Sanjay Gandhi”.
Constitutional amendments centralize family planning
The administration changed India’s legal framework to help mass sterilization. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment of 1976 strengthened central government control and earned the nickname “mini-Constitution” for its sweeping changes.
Directive principles took precedence over fundamental rights that had “been allowed to be relied upon to frustrate socio-economic reforms”. The amendment limited judicial review of legislation, making it harder for citizens to challenge government actions in court.
Health Minister Dr. Karan Singh announced the National Population Policy in April 1976. The policy officially allowed compulsory sterilization at the state level. His statement encouraged states to “pass legislation for compulsory sterilization” wherever needed.
The IMF and World Bank allegedly supported these policies. They saw population control as crucial for economic development. Family planning transformed from a voluntary health initiative into a coercive tool of state control within months of these constitutional changes.
The campaign’s scale was staggering. Between June 1975 and March 1977, an estimated 11 million Indians, mostly men, underwent forced sterilization. The numbers peaked in 1976 when 6.2 million men had vasectomies—fifteen times more than the entire Nazi regime’s sterilization program.
How coercion replaced consent in rural India
Rural India saw voluntary participation give way to coercive tactics as state governments launched aggressive sterilization campaigns. Local officials abandoned ethical practices. They used force and intimidation to meet their targets.
Villagers lured or forced into camps
The Uttawar village midnight raid showed tactics that spread across rural India. Officials woke men over age 15 with loudspeakers, sorted them as “eligible” cases, and took them to sterilization facilities. A survivor recalled the horror: officials “broke the doors and everything that came in their way; they shattered everything they could see.”
Women endured similar ordeals. Raji became one of nearly 100 women forced into an old government hospital. A single doctor performed tubal ligations with just one set of surgical instruments. She had to recover on the corridor floor after the painful procedure. Many victims believed sterilization was their only contraceptive option because officials misled them about alternatives.
Certificates required for jobs, rations, and licenses
State governments punished those who refused sterilization. Rajasthan blocked people with more than three children from government jobs unless they agreed to sterilization. Madhya Pradesh authorities threatened agricultural livelihoods by withholding irrigation water from village fields. Teachers in Uttar Pradesh lost a month’s salary if they refused the procedure, forcing them to comply.
Bihar’s actions proved especially cruel. The state denied public food rations to families with more than two children. One village’s much-needed well was withheld until “100% of eligible couples” underwent sterilization—showing how authorities used simple necessities as weapons against vulnerable communities.
Resistance met with violence and police firing
Brutal consequences awaited those who resisted. Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi protests against environmental pollution in 2018 demonstrated how authorities still handle citizen resistance. Police killed at least 11 people when demonstrators opposed a copper smelting plant. Video evidence showed plainclothes officers shooting at protesters from atop a police van.
Opposition leader MK Stalin labeled it “mass murder of innocent people” and asked: “Who ordered the police firing on protesters? Why were automatic weapons used to disperse the crowd?”
Yes, it is documented that violent resistance during the Emergency occurred throughout India, with multiple deaths linked to police brutality. These aggressive tactics led to the sterilization of an estimated 11 million men and women without proper consent between June 1975 and March 1977.
How international aid fueled India’s sterilization drive
Image Source: Association for Asian Studies
International financial backing fueled India’s aggressive sterilization campaign. Foreign aid organizations funded the program that reached deep into rural villages at an unprecedented scale.
USAID, World Bank, and UNFPA funding tied to targets
International agencies shaped India’s population control programs. They saw demographic management as key to economic progress. The World Bank had focused on infrastructure projects until the 1970s. It then made population control its priority and called it fundamental to development. USAID poured millions into India’s family planning initiatives. The organization often tied its support to specific sterilization targets.
These international funders worked closely with Indian officials who ran these programs. Foreign consultants visited sterilization camps to provide technical help but ignored concerning practices. A Maharashtra official later revealed: “The targets came from above, and the money came from abroad.”
Western eugenics ideology influences policy
Western eugenic thinking from the early 20th century heavily influenced India’s sterilization drive. This ideology promoted selective breeding to improve genetic qualities. Indian policy reflected these ideas through population control measures that targeted specific communities.
American foundations spread these concepts throughout developing nations. A historian explained, “Western organizations exported not just funding but an entire conceptual approach to population that prioritized limitation over health.” This philosophy took root in Indian government thinking. Officials openly labeled certain populations as “excess” or “problematic.”
Sterilization seen as development tool
Foreign donors linked population control directly to economic advancement. Their view suggested India’s development challenges came from overpopulation rather than structural inequalities or resource distribution.
The Ford Foundation and other international organizations pushed sterilization as the best solution. Their reports stressed that India needed dramatic population reduction to achieve economic progress. This story justified harsh measures as necessary sacrifices for national development. The policies ended up violating fundamental rights in villages across India.
How legacy of Emergency still haunts reproductive rights
India’s sterilization program changed drastically after the Emergency ended in 1977. The program’s focus moved away from men and targeted women instead. This change didn’t end forced reproductive control – it just aimed at a different, more vulnerable group.
Shift to female sterilization post-1977
The public strongly rejected male sterilization right away. Women made up 46% of sterilizations in 1975-76, which dropped to 25% during the Emergency’s last year. The numbers flipped completely after the Emergency ended. Female sterilizations jumped to 80% of all procedures by 1977-78. The numbers kept rising through the 1980s, reaching 91.8% by 1989-90. Today, female sterilization makes up 66% of all contraceptive use in India. Male sterilization remains very low at just 0.3%.
Deaths in modern sterilization camps
The switch to female sterilization hasn’t made things safer. India recorded 1,434 sterilization-related deaths between 2003 and 2012. The government paid compensation for 568 deaths from 2009 to 2012. A terrible incident happened in November 2014 when 16 women died after their tubectomies at a government-sponsored health camp in Bilaspur.
The conditions remain terrible:
- One doctor operated on 83 women in about five hours
- Doctors ignored government rules that limit surgeons to 30 operations per day
- The staff sent women home right after surgery without any follow-up care
- Doctors used the same surgical equipment for more than 10 operations against safety rules
Lack of informed consent and alternatives today
Officials say these programs are voluntary, but research shows disturbing patterns. One in five women who got sterilized never learned they couldn’t have more children. Health workers face pressure to meet targets or risk losing their jobs or pay. This leads some to push women into sterilization without explaining the risks, permanent nature, or other safer options.
The incentive system creates more problems. Women receive money (1,400 rupees in some areas) for getting sterilized. Kerry McBroom, who leads the Reproductive Rights Initiative at the Human Rights Law Network, calls this “a form of coercion, especially when dealing with marginalized communities”. The national sterilization regret rate stays at 5-7%, but given India’s population, this means about 6.5 million women wish they hadn’t gotten this permanent procedure.
The scars of forced sterilization still run deep in India’s collective memory, 50 years after the Emergency period. People from villages like Uttawar have now broken their silence after decades. Their stories paint a picture of systematic human rights violations masked as population control measures.
The numbers tell a horrifying tale. Eight million men underwent forced sterilization. Thousands lost their lives due to operations gone wrong. Countless families still carry the trauma. The Emergency ended in 1977, but its shadow looms over reproductive rights even today. Female sterilization has now replaced male vasectomy as the government’s preferred method. This accounts for 66% of all contraceptive use. Death rates remain shocking – more than 1,400 people died from sterilization procedures between 2003 and 2012.
Western organizations share blame for this tragedy without doubt. Their funding and eugenic ideology gave both money and justification to policies that valued population targets above human dignity. This approach saw certain groups as roadblocks to progress rather than citizens who deserved respect and freedom of choice.
The village of Uttawar stands as proof of both suffering and strength. People like Mohammad Deenu, who lived through “that night of scare,” make sure younger people know what happened in those dark times. Their stories show how vulnerable groups—especially Muslims and Dalits—suffered the worst of state violence.
The government’s pressure tactics changed but never went away after the Emergency. People needed sterilization certificates to get jobs, rations, and licenses. Police met any resistance with force. This created conditions where real consent became impossible. Constitutional amendments gave more power to the center and limited court oversight. This created legal loopholes that allowed these abuses.
These stories serve as powerful warnings 50 years later. They show how quickly democratic protections can fall when emergency powers override constitutional rights. The pain that started on a cold November night in India’s villages still echoes through generations. It reminds us how fragile reproductive rights are and how state overreach during crisis leaves lasting scars.