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Journalism of Courage
The government on Tuesday told Lok Sabha that more than 1.07 crore people were sterilised during the Emergency period from 1975 to 1977, exceeding the target of 67.40 lakh set by the then Indira Gandhi government.
In response to a written question, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai presented data from the 1978 Justice J C Shah Commission report which detailed the excesses of the Emergency, including the use of force in the implementation of the family planning programme.
According to the data, in 1975-76, the government set a goal of 24,85,000 sterilisation procedures and surpassed it by completing 26,24,755 surgeries across the country.
“These substantial figures were dwarfed in the subsequent year, 1976-77, when targets soared to 42,55,500, and the sterilisation procedures performed skyrocketed to 81,32,209,” the reply said.
The government said sterilisation procedures exceeded targets by more than 59 per cent between 1975 and 1977.
“Further, a total of 548 complaints of sterilization of unmarried persons and 1,774 cases of death linked to sterilization during the Emergency period were also reported to the Shah Commission. The Shah Commission Report was tabled in Parliament on August 31, 1978,” Rai stated in the reply to BJP MP from Telangana’s Chevella, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy.
The Shah Commission had collected evidence through public hearings, testimonies and official records, and submitted three reports between 1978 and 1979.
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