The state government is backing a move by which mentally challenged women will be made to undergo uterus removal surgery. While the Maharashtra government defends its stance by saying it will help these women, activists term the move inhuman. DNA goes to the root of this debate…
A ripple of giggles sets off as a bunch of 12 adolescent girls poring over their needlework at the SPJ Sadhana School, Peddar Road, are asked to talk about a “very private matter” by their vice-principal, Radhike Khanna.
The girls, all over 16 years, are mentally challenged and have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of below 50. The class will soon head for a ten-day excursion to Punjab. Khanna asks the girls whether, on the trip, they will be able to take care of themselves and maintain personal hygiene if they start menstruating.
Even before Khanna can finish her question, pat come the replies listing how they will pack sanitary napkins, old newspapers, and extra undergarments. “We know how to take care of ourselves,” lisps Pooja (name changed).
But if the government has its way, girls like Pooja and others who are housed in the state’s five mental institutions would be made to undergo a hysterectomy. According to the government, ‘mentally retarded adolescent girls or adult women during menstruation have no sense of hygiene.’
Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and, sometimes, the ovaries. The operation stops menstruation and the patient can never bear children. But it can also cause hormonal imbalances.
Labelling the benchmark of IQ below 50 as “absurd”, Khanna, who has a doctorate in special education and has been dealing with mentally challenged students for over 20 years, says patients with IQ as low as 20 can be taught how to maintain hygiene. “Even with profoundly retarded girls, who have no sensation, we recommend the use of diapers,” she says.
“The mental illness can get compounded with surgical intervention like hysterectomy, which often causes hormonal imbalance leading to mood swings.”
According to the government’s affidavit submitted in the Bombay High Court, five government-run mental institutions currently house 330 mentally retarded girls and women. The government’s reasons for backing hysterectomies are that inmates cannot maintain hygiene and are uncooperative with the care-givers.
In 1994, when hysterectomies were performed on 17 girls in the Shirur home, administrative convenience weighed more than inmates’ rights.
But the confidence brimming in the students of Sadhana School belies the government’s claim that mentally challenged girls cannot maintain hygiene. The five government institutions are not even over-burdened: they have 470 inmates against a capacity of 560.
“Each mentally challenged person has different levels of understanding. A blanket benchmark of IQ below 50 for conducting a hysterectomy is absurd,” says Vandana Gopalkrishnan, co-founder of The Banyan, a Chennai-based NGO working with the mentally ill.
m_anshika@dnaindia.net
