Human rights activists slam the government for forcibly sterilising rural women who already have two or more children. The authorities force doctors to perform operations or lose their job. False claims of illness are made to trick women into agreeing to the surgery.

Tashkent (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Government of Uzbekistan is conducting a campaign of sterilisation at the expense of rural women. Uzbek authorities are in fact implementing a forced-sterilisation programme to manage population growth, local sources say, citing a US State department report.

Human rights activists told Eurasianet that the campaign began in early 2009. Doctors in the capital Tashkent were sent to rural areas to persuade women with three or more children to undergo surgical sterilisation by highlighting the benefits of such an operation and downplaying any drawbacks.

“There are cases of deception, where doctors are deceiving women, telling them that they have encountered serious illness that makes surgical sterilization a must," said a report published in February by the human rights organisation Nazhot.

Sources said doctors sent out in recent months have performed up to 12 hysterectomies a day under primitive conditions and often without following proper hygienic procedures.

In its 2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, the US State Department noted that in Uzbekistan, there were "isolated reports in Khorezm and Andijan of forced sterilization of women who had more than two children”. In some cases, women chose to deliver in cities because of better hygiene and prevent the authorities from finding out how many children they had.

Uzbek activists have brought the forced-sterilisation issue to light in January at a meeting hosted by the United Nation’s Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

In addition, “With conditions of mass unemployment, it can be expected that doctors will almost completely fulfil the established plan, out of fear of losing their job,” said Expert Working Group, an Uzbek independent think-tank.

“The increased rate of surgical sterilisation among women of reproductive age [. . .] has become a major issue during the weekly meetings among medical personnel in all health facilities in Khorezm region,” the Nazhot report said.

Uzbekistan has a population of 27.3 million people with a growth rate of 1.5 per year.

• uzbekistan
• forced
• sterilisation
• women
• population
• growth
• control
• nazhot