50 years after Emergency: India confronts its sterilisation past, potential of demographic future

New Delhi: In the 1970s, before the Emergency was officially imposed, children in some rural areas often ran around unclothed -- until fear gripped families so tightly that even toddlers were dressed, not for modesty, but out of fear of forced sterilisation.

As India marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, memories of mass sterilisation campaigns -- many carried out under coercion -- continue to haunt survivors and influence public health discourse even today.

In 1976 alone, more than eight million sterilisations were conducted across India, most of them vasectomies. Many of these were not voluntary.

"It was a dark, dark period -- no less than a war. We didn’t know what would happen the next day. I remember being so afraid that my family didn’t travel outside Delhi until the Emergency ended," 78-year-old Ishrat Jahan, a resident of Okhla, Delhi said.

Amina Hasan, now 83 and living in Aligarh, still shudders at the memory.

"We were poor but had dignity. They took that away. In our area, men started hiding in fields and wells when officials came around. We felt hunted," she recalled.

The pressure was relentless and indiscriminate. In 'Unsettling Memories', anthropologist Emma Tarlo documents how civil servants, factory workers and police personnel were often coerced into undergoing vasectomy.

"The officers said you could keep your job only if you got sterilised. I didn’t have time to think," a worker told her. "I agreed because I had to save my job and bring up my family." The stigma attached to male sterilisation was severe that in many communities, it was equated with emasculation. One anti-Emergency slogan scrawled across North India at the time summed up the sentiment: "Nasbandi ke doot, Indira Gandhi ki loot" (Agents of sterilisation, Indira Gandhi’s loot).

One of the most violent episodes unfolded at Delhi’s Turkman Gate, a historic Muslim locality. In April 1976, when residents resisted demolitions linked to urban "beautification" drives and refused to undergo sterilisation, police opened fire.

Entire families were displaced, homes were razed, but the area remains an enduring symbol of Emergency excesses.

Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, said coercive measures during the Emergency "set back reproductive rights for both men and women".

"India’s population for a long time was viewed through the narrow lens of fear and scarcity. But today, there’s growing recognition that our people are our greatest asset," she said.

"India’s strength lies in its youthful population -- its demographic dividend. But being the most populous country also brings enormous responsibility. It’s not just about numbers -- it’s about investing in every life through education, health and opportunity," she added.

Since the late 1970s, India has shifted from coercive family planning to voluntary participation and awareness. Today, female sterilisation accounts for the majority of procedures, although critics point out that the burden has disproportionately shifted to women.

The past, however, still casts a long shadow. Some states have proposed limiting government benefits to families with only two children.

"Yes, we are seeing troubling signs on both extremes. On one hand, there are calls for coercive population control -- such as punitive two-child policies or conditional welfare schemes," Muttreja said, adding that on the other end, there is growing pronatalist rhetoric driven by fear of long-term population decline, with some suggesting incentives for more births.

Both approaches risk instrumentalising women’s bodies for demographic goals, she said.

As India seeks to harness its population as a source of economic strength, experts stress the need for caution.

"The way forward lies in ensuring choice, not control," Muttreja said.

"India’s fertility rate is already below replacement level. The focus should be on addressing unmet need for contraception, improving healthcare access and empowering women through education and economic opportunity," she added.

Population stabilisation will come not from pressure, but from trust, dignity and protecting reproductive rights, she said.

As the country remembers the Emergency, it also stands at a demographic crossroads — between past trauma and future potential.