Last week, around 500 tribal people, all married men and women in their early 30s, from different villages in Munchingput and Pedabayalu of Alluri Sitharamaraju (ASR) district were transported in buses to a private hospital in Visakhapatnam city for family planning surgery.
This has raised doubts about the intent of the surgery among the tribal people, as they were reportedly promised ₹5,000 each on successful completion of the procedure, with a condition that they needed to stay under observation for 15 days.
“The family planning procedure is one of the simplest surgeries. They are performed in an hour these days and in most cases, the person is discharged in a day after the procedure. But in this case, the tribal people were told that they needed to be kept under observation for 15 days. This is very suspicious,” district convenor of Andhra Pradesh Adivasi Joint Action Committee Rama Rao Dora from Munchingput told The Hindu.
“What is the need for keeping the tribal people under observation for 15 days. Moreover, why take them to Visakhapatnam city when there are umpteen facilities for family planning procedure in the Agency area itself,” he asked.
Mr. Rama Rao Dora said there is the district hospital in Paderu, area hospitals at Araku and Chintapalli, and a Community Health Centre (CHC) at Munchingput. “All these facilities are well-equipped to perform family planning procedures. Such surgeries are being done here without a hitch. Moreover, there are at least two to three PHCs in each mandal where such surgeries can be performed,” he said.
According to some tribal people who were transported to the private hospital, the hospital authorities told them that the procedure would be performed in the King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam, the biggest government referral hospital in the entire north Andhra region. However, they were brought to a private hospital directly, alleged Mr. Rama Rao.
According to some tribal people from Munchingput and Pedabayalu, the private hospital was organising free medical camps in the Agency areas and with the help of the local health workers, the hospital authorities put forward the idea of the family planning procedure. “Suspecting some foul play, we have taken up the case with the ITDA Project Officer,” said Mr. Rama Rao.
Meanwhile, Paderu ITDA Project Officer Ronanki Gopalakrishna said that the issue had come to his notice. “The issue appears to be serious. We have asked the DM&HO and ADM&HO to look into it and submit a report within two days,” he said.
Mr. Rama Rao further said that there was no need for any family planning procedure in the areas at this moment, as the population density of tribal people, after State bifurcation, has come down from 300 per sq km to about 40 per sq km.
