According to the Indian Union government's affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on Friday, Indian women are undergoing hysterectomies, a surgical procedure to remove the uterus and prevent pregnancy, at a much earlier age compared to women in developed nations. According to the affidavit submitted, the age at which women in India undergo hysterectomy procedures is much earlier compared to women in developed countries. The affidavit mentioned that in developed countries, the procedure is usually performed on premenopausal women who are over 45 years old. Community-based studies in India have consistently reported an increasing trend in the rates of hysterectomy among young women, with the age range being between 28 to 36 years.
The National Family Health Survey of 2015-16 estimated hysterectomy prevalence to be 3.6% among women aged between 36-39 years, 9.2% among women aged 40-49 years, and the median age for hysterectomy was 37 years. Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging forced hysterectomy procedures being carried out in some parts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, the Centre said that field-based studies have indicated that "unnecessary hysterectomies are performed on women where medical or non-invasive treatment would have been sufficient."
According to data provided by the government, since the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat PM-Jan Arogya Yojna in 2018, which is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world providing health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to 12 crore families, there have been 45,434 hospital admissions authorized for hysterectomy related treatment, worth Rs 126 crore. Out of these, almost two-thirds of the procedures, i.e., 33,559, were performed in private hospitals, while only 11,875 were carried out in government hospitals. Under the PM-JAY scheme, the government incurs an average cost of Rs 27,756 for each hysterectomy procedure.
Over the last five years since the initiation of the health assurance scheme, Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest number of hysterectomy procedures with 10,341, followed by Kerala with 7,549, Gujarat with 6,605, Haryana with 5,034, Madhya Pradesh with 2,913, Andhra Pradesh with 2,525, and Uttarakhand with 2,042.
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