| Abstract: | The 1 issue, more than anything else, that cost Indira Gandhi the election in India was her mass sterilization campaign. Although no one questions India's need for an effective family planning program, the government's program to vasectomize millions of Indian men who had fathered 2 or more children was ruthlessly and often illegally applied and came to symbolize the dangers of authoritarian rule. The program's target was 4.3 million sterilizations; the campaign produced 7.8 million between April 1976 and January 1977. In an effort to ensure the program's success, the government censors prohibited newspapers from publishing any criticism of family planning. 6 months ago the Family Planning Council claimed that "a most favorable climate" has been created for the voluntary acceptance of sterilization. In a recent tour of the Indian countryside this claim was found to be untrue. None of the villagers this writer spoke to had been offered any guidance by a family planning worker. There had been no explanation, for example, that sterilization is not responsible for impotence. By last week when the votes were counted, the pattern was clear. In states where the sterilization program had been pursued with the most zeal but the least preparation, the defection from the Congress Party was the most severe. |
