Tamil Ethnic cleansing by chauvinist Buddhist Sinhalese
Recently,
women in three Kilinochchi villages were subjected to coercive population control.
This incident occurred on August 31, 2013 at the Veravil government divisional hospital in Kilinochchi. The affected women reside in Valaipaddu, Veravil and Keranchi[1] ; all three are coastal villages.
On August 30, the hospital staff and volunteers attached to Veravil divisional hospital informed community members residing in the three villages that any woman with a child under the age of five should come to the hospital the following day to weigh their children and to receive a vaccination.
On August 31, over twenty nurses and midwives who had come to Veravil divisional hospital from Killinochchi went door-to-door in those three villages and asked all the mothers to come to the Veravil divisional hospital. In Valaipaddu, two ambulances were used to transport mothers to the hospital that day.
A forty-three-year-old woman told TSA members the volunteer came to my house in the evening and asked me to come to the hospital with the clinic card to weigh my child who is under 5 years. When I told her that my daughter is in good health she said that the research team is coming from Kilinochchi district hospital and they know better. I thought it will be good to consult a specialist who is coming all the way from Killinochchi. Little did I know what they were up to.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the doctors and nurses used coercive language and manipulated medical information to convince the women to take Progestogen-only subdermal implants (POSDIs), a long-term hormonal birth control inserted under the skin of a womans upper arm.
The medical professionals said that they were going to give the women some contraceptives and inquired about the types of contraception the women already used. Many women had said that they take oral contraceptive pills. The health professionals informed the women that the contraceptive they had with them was better than pills as it would prevent pregnancy long-term without side effects including weight loss.
Initially, all the mothers were opposed to the idea of accepting this new contraceptive. The nurses clearly explained to the women that, if they chose not to receive contraception, then they may not be able to receive any other treatment at the hospital in the future.
Another female teacher told TSA there were a lot of people at this small hospital. There were only seventeen beds and the outpatient department could hold less than fifty people. They weighed my daughter and they recorded her weight on the card, but they didnt return the card. I waited for two hours and I was anxious about my other daughter at home. They were speaking to the women for a long time and they were sending the women to the doctors inside after spending a lot of time trying to convince them of something. I saw women walking out of the doctors room with a big bandage. I got a bit worried. I got up and asked the nurse to give me my clinic card and they asked me to wait for a while. I waited for thirty minutes and then asked again. They got annoyed with me and asked me to come next. When I sat in front of them they asked me about my age and my reproductive health practices. They asked about my family planning practices. I told them that I use natural methods using my cycles. They laughed at me and said that I should not be getting pregnant at the age of forty-three. If I get pregnant I will give birth to a deformed child and I refuted that. I also told them that even though I delivered my two other children by C section I could have one more child. If I get pregnant that is Gods wish. I fought with them and the nurse sent me to her supervisor. I told her the same thing and this person was ruder than the previous one and I got a bit scared. I then told her that I should ask permission from my husband to undergo this procedure even though I didnt understand anything they were saying. They told me that I wont have children for five years. They also told me that I will not have any side effects and that this is the best contraceptive method. I reiterated that I should get permission from my husband otherwise he will leave me. They told me to leave without the clinic card and come back with my husbands permission. I refused and I told them that I can state in writing that I dont want to get anything and that I would like to continue with the same methods I was using since my marriage. I wrote and signed a piece of paper and left with my daughter.
I didnt see the doctor who was usually at the hospital. The previous evening he had come to our school and asked for big pots and pans, stating that lot of doctors are coming from Killinochchi to do some research. I dont think he was aware of what was going on in his hospital
After speaking with the medical professionals at the hospital, the mothers then said that without any information about this procedure, they needed to get permission from their husbands to receive the contraception. The nurses and other medical staff present responded that, if the women didnt do what was being asked of them now, then their husbands would be brought to the hospital so that the procedure could also be performed on them. After hearing this, a lot of the women were compelled to accept.
Coercive Population Control in Kilinochchi | Groundviews
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