Del govt issues advisory in regard to sterilisation policy

Delhi government has issued an advisory to all hospitals certified for carrying out sterilisations stating that no targets are allocated to any facility or service provider under current programme on family planning.
The advisory stressed that the policy of no forced or coerced sterilisation is to be strictly adhered to.
"It is pertinent here to clarify that no targets are allocated to any facility or service provider under the current programme on family planning and thus the policy of no forced or coerced sterilisation is to be strictly adhered to," said the advisory issued by Senior Programme Officer of Family Planning (Health Department) Jyoti Sachdeva.

Further, the advisory called for stricter following of standards laid down by Union Health Ministry.
"Medical Eligibility Criteria (MEC) are to be strictly adhered to and high risk cases to be done only at appropriate levels of facility. Apart from that services should be delivered in client friendly manner with due sensitivity, seriousness and never in a hurried manner," the advisory said.
It said that approved family planning camps should be organised after meticulous planning at those facilities.

"The recent sterilisation deaths in Chhattisgarh is extremely unfortunate and should be taken as a call for ensuring strictest and quality provisions in Family Planning Services at each level in the state to prevent and pre-empt any such incidence from occuring.

Each one of the service providers needs to be extremely careful in counselling, screening and conduct of serilisation procedures.
"Also the remarks by a doctor in Odisha that cycle pumps are routinely used to dilate the cervix of women during sterilisation surgeries at camps is really shocking," said Sachdeva who added that sterilisations in Delhi are conducted in accreditated hospitals.