New Delhi: More than 1.07 crore people were sterilized during the national emergency from 1975 to 1977, which was more than the “target” set by the then Indira Gandhi government, according to the findings of the Justice JC Shah Commission, shared by the Union Home Ministry on Tuesday. The Justice Shah Commission had questioned the excesses, miscreants and rapes during the Emergency, including the use of force in the implementation of the family planning program. Its report was made in Parliament on 31 August 1978. In response to a question, Junior Home Minister Nityanand Rai shared the Shah panel, with 548 complaints of sterilization of unmarried people and 1,774 deaths related to sterilization.According to the Shah Commission, the Government of India had set annual targets for states and center areas for the sterilization program for 1975–76 and 1976-77. While the states exceeded the 1975–76 target to more than 5.6% (sterilization of 26.2 lakh people) from a sterilization of 24.8 lakhs, the number of real sterilization in 1976–77 (81.3 lakh) exceeded the target of more than 91% (42.5 lakh).Maharashtra saw the most sterilization during the emergency period (14.4 lakh), followed by Madhya Pradesh (11.1 lakh), Bengal (10.8 lakh) and up (9.65 lakh).According to the Shah Commission reported by TOI, the voluntary nature of the family planning program went through a sudden change during the emergency period. The then Union Health Minister Karan Singh sent Indira Gandhi on 10 October 1975, spoke of “Crash Program to Interest Family Planning ‘,” Starting some elements of compulsion in the big national interest “.“This can be done by applying a prudent and careful selected mixture of encouragement and disintegration. The current emergency … (is) provides a proper environment to deal with the problem, “Singh said.On 22 January 1976, PM Indira Gandhi talked about “bringing birth rates down”, which “with the steps that can be strict”.According to the Shah Panel, the Health Ministry’s approach for family planning during the Emergency focused on a single method: sterilization. While the achievement of sterilization goals in 1975–76 and 1976–77 was “107%” and 190%, the performance in relation to other methods decreased much of the performance targets.Strange, some states went through their way to increase the targets of 1976-77 beyond the people set by the Government of India. For example, UP revised the target from 4 lakh to 15 lakhs, although it could only achieve sterilization of 8.4 lakhs. Similarly, Maharashtra revised the target from 5.6 lakh to 12 lakhs, but ended the sterilization of 8.3 lakh lakhs. West Bengal amended the 3.9-over target set by the Center to 11 lakhs, only to achieve sterilization of 8.8 lakhs in 1976-77.
