In the 1975–77 Emergency, India’s government forcibly sterilised over 8 million men, including villagers in Uttawar who recount being rounded up and coerced into vasectomies under threat, exposing harsh abuses hidden behind population control.
At a Glance
- During the Emergency, more than 8 million men underwent vasectomy, with 6 million in 1976 alone.
- Nearly 2,000 deaths resulted from botched sterilisation procedures.
- In Uttawar, villagers were coerced into vasectomy to shield the community from state raids.
- The campaign was tied to Sanjay Gandhi and supported by global development funding.
- Survivors still await formal acknowledgment, apology, or compensation.
Emergency Era: Populace Under Siege
On June 25, 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency, suspending civil liberties and empowering her son Sanjay Gandhi to drive aggressive population control efforts. Over the next two years, more than 8 million men were sterilised, many forcibly, through police raids, misinformation, and economic coercion.
Nearly 2,000 men died due to unhygienic or rushed procedures in makeshift clinics. The campaign was particularly aggressive in North India, with entire villages targeted based on quotas rather than consent.
Uttawar Remembers
In the village of Uttawar, Haryana, then-30-year-old Mohammad Deenu and roughly 14 others were rounded up by police in November 1976. They were told compliance would protect the rest of the community. “It was a sacrifice that saved the village,” Deenu recounts in Al Jazeera’s retrospective. Fifty years later, he is the last surviving witness among those sterilised in his village.
Though the vasectomy was presented as voluntary, Deenu describes fear and coercion: “If we had refused, they would have taken more of us.” Today, he watches his grandchildren play, reflecting on how that “sacrifice” is remembered—rarely by the state, and only recently by the press.
Lingering Legacy and Ongoing Silence
The Emergency’s sterilisation campaign eroded public trust in family planning and triggered a lasting political backlash. Analysts argue the trauma still impedes reproductive policy in India today. As The Print reports, many families distrust government-run medical campaigns due to the abuses committed during the Emergency.
Despite the scale of the programme, there has been no formal state apology, compensation scheme, or legal redress for the thousands of men sterilised under duress. Historical investigations have mostly focused on Sanjay Gandhi’s authoritarian methods, while little has been done to support affected communities or acknowledge systemic culpability.
As India marks 50 years since the Emergency, survivors like Deenu offer sobering testimony: that democracy’s collapse was not abstract—it was surgical, brutal, and deeply personal.