WI: Mandatory Sterilization in Maharashtra, India

India has a dark history of family planning, with mandatory vasectomy, or nasbandi, enacted in some parts of the country during the dark period of dictatorship from 1975 to 1977. During this period, millions of people were sterilized forcibly, and sterilization vans were feared across India. It is for good reason that in 1977, the Janata Party used the slogan Indira hatao, indiri bachao (Remove Indira, save your penis) to win a landslide. Average farmers could tolerate opposition politicians and journalists being imprisoned, and dissent being clamped upon, but they could not tolerate being forcibly sterilized. This naturally caused more than a few riots. This period ended in 1977, when the state of emergency ended and elections were called - elections which the ruling party lost handily.

Yet, this campaign of mandatory sterilization could have gone further if the Emergency was slightly longer. The states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh each had proposals to enact mandatory sterilization with jail sentences for those who did not comply, but Maharashtra’s proposal came the closest to being enacted. The Maharashtra Compulsory Sterilization Bill, 1976, was referred to Parliament. Yet, before it could be discussed, elections were called and the bill was returned to Maharashtra with no assent.

But what if Indira Gandhi hesitated in calling elections, and gave the bill enough time to be given assent. I doubt that everyone listed in the bill would be sterilized, as sterilization certificate forgery was a very big business IOTL as well. What this means is that those who can’t afford any forged certificates, the poor, will be the most likely to be forcibly sterilized by sterilization vans. Maharashtra had pretty modern infrastructure suitable for such a project, and Sanjay Gandhi, who held much power in this period, would see this as his own personal project, directing Youth Congress, which he turned into a paramilitary, to enforce this bill. The poor would be deeply angry about this, and I strongly suspect that there would be very severe riots across Maharashtra, as well as people trying to flee across the border to states without mandatory sterilization. The state would be consumed in chaos.
 
Here’s some more information on Maharashtra’s sterilization bill according to The Sanjay Story by Vinod Mehta:

Five states, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, and West Bengal seemed most keen on the idea, and three, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh began drafting legislation. Only Maharashtra finally produced a draft, and the state became, in the words of the New York Times, ‘The first political entity in the world to legislate population control by forced sterilization’.

Maharashtra’s keenness to be the standard bearer of Sanjay’s new plan was, in a sense, understandable. The chief minister, S. B. Chavan, had on more than one occasion been tainted by Sanjay about his state’s poor showing on the sterilization table. Sanjay pointed out what had been achieved in the other states of India. Why was Maharashtra lagging behind?

Chavan, aware of Sanjay’s ability to unseat chief ministers, decided to make amends for past lapses. He ordered the secretary to the Public Health Ministry, Paltnikar, to prepare a compulsory sterilization document - and quickly. Paltnikar burned the midnight oil studying statue books, consulting lawyers, doctors, civil servants, and politicians. In ten days, he had the first draft ready.

The main provisions of what was called ‘The Family Size Limitation Bill’ required men up to the age of 55, and women up to 45 to be sterilized within 180 days of the birth of their third living child. The first obligation for the operation was placed on men and they would only be exempted if a doctor could certify that a vasectomy would endanger their lives. The bill provided a prison term of two years for those who failed to be sterilized. Dr. D. N. Pai, director of family planning, Bombay, clarified that in practice ‘offenders would be sterilized and paroled’.

Pai conceded that Mrs. Gandhi’s half-hearted support for enforced sterilization was a set-back. Nevertheless, he was happy that ‘her son is all for it’.

The bill was passed by both Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature, and was awaiting the president’s approval when elections were announced. One shudders to think what additional atrocities would have been committed in its name had it been on the statute books.​
 
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