June 2012
18 posts
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2:32
UK aid helps to fund forced sterilisation of India's poor →
guardian.co.uk
The UK agreed to give India £166m to fund the programme, despite allegations that the money would be used to sterilise the poor in an attempt to curb the country’s burgeoning population of 1.2 billion people.
Sterilisation has been mired in controversy for years. With officials and doctors paid a bonus for every operation, poor and little-educated men and women in rural areas are routinely rounded up and sterilised without having a chance to object. Activists say some are told they are going to health camps for operations that will improve their general wellbeing and only discover the truth after going under the knife.
This is stuff that’s happening within your lifetime. This is not something from the past, something that happened a while ago. Population control is something that still exists.
And if you ever try saying that we need to save women in foreign countries, well maybe you should step back and consider how Western countries are aiding in (and have encouraged) creating these issues.
