The Delhi government has paid a compensation to 39 patients whose sterilisation operations failed and resulted in unwanted pregnancies.

The failed surgeries came under the scanner of the Directorate of Health and Family Planning after the patients got back to the department complaining of laxity in service. During 2013-2014, 48 complaints of failed cases and one complaint of complication were reported. However, of the total number of complaints received, 39 cases were eligible for compensation. No death due to sterilisation operation has been reported either.

A patient is paid a compensation of Rs 30,000 for a failed sterilisation programme.

The failed cases form 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of the total number of sterilisation cases performed. This is within the limits of the acceptable failure rate as per medical textbooks. Also, a marginal drop has been observed in the number of failure cases compared to 2012-2013.

In the last year, over 18,000 people have opted for the permanent method of sterilisation.

Currently, there are 40 public hospitals and 32 private hospitals accredited to carry out vasectomy and tubectomy under the sterilisation programme. While vasectomy is the permanent method of male sterilisation for birth control, tubectomy is the permanent method of birth control in women.

What stands as striking for the current failure figures is, no case of vasectomy failure has been observed so far. The number of people opting for the permanent method of sterilisation has, however, remained almost the same as the last year.

“The department’s continuous efforts to improve the quality of sterilisation services available for people across the state are on,” said Dr D K Dewan, Director of Department of Health and Family Welfare.

A woman from general quota opting for sterilisation gets Rs 250.  If she belongs to BPL category or is from the SC/ST or OBC class, an amount of Rs 650 would granted to her. Every male undergoing vasectomy would be getting an incentive of Rs 1,100 irrespective of his economic background.

Under the current indemnity scheme, the next of kin receives Rs 2 lakh if a patient dies within the first seven days of sterilisation in hospital. If the patient dies between eight to 30 days then Rs 50,000 is paid. The actual amount alloted for a person complaining of complication is Rs 25,000 which will be paid upon the production of bills.