RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh high court has quashed a 39-year-old order that restricted permanent family planning among Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Communities ( on a petition filed by the tribal Baiga community members, who termed the order as arbitrary and violated their rights, including right to health and reproductive rights.The petitioners included eight Baiga women and two men from Jan Swasthya Sahyog Ganiyari and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (People's Health Movement). As per petitioner Sulakshana Nandi, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the high court, challenging the order restricting permanent family planning among PVTGs in February, 2017 against the order issued by the public health & family welfare department of erstwhile Madhya Pradesh on 13.12.1979. The order stated that PVTGs could undergo permanent sterilization only after permission from the block office.The order was operationalized as a veritable ban on sterilization of PVTGs in Chhattisgarh and those desiring sterilization were forced to travel to Madhya Pradesh or other neighbouring states to get the service. The petitioners had been trying to get permission from the government for permanent sterilization, but it was denied. The 1979 order was challenged on the grounds that it was arbitrary and violated the right to life and liberty, which includes the right to health and reproductive rights. It further discriminated against tribal people and hence violated Article 14 of the Constitution.The petition argued that the order has caused tremendous hardship to the tribal people in the state, particularly women. In the absence of family planning options, tribal couples have been forced to have large families.A high-level committee on socio-economic, health and educational status of tribal communities of India constituted by the Union government noted in its report in 2014 that "such a policy denies members of PVTGs the autonomy to make free and informed reproductive choices, and particularly denies any agency and bodily autonomy to women of these communities, who have to bear the burden of the denial of access to sterilization facilities. "Moreover, it sidesteps the real factors contributing to high mortality rates such as chronic malnutrition, starvation and lack of access to adequate health facilities", the report stated. The PVTG communities in clude the Baigas, Kamars, Birhors, Pahari Korwas and Abujhmarias.A number of media reports and studies have been quoted in the petition that illustrate the hardships being faced by these tribal groups due to denial of family planning services.The relief requested from the high court includes directing the respondents to withdraw the government order dated 13.12.1979, provide complete family planning services, including sterilization services, guaranteed under the National Health Mission, to all tribes and in all the areas without any restrictions and to ensure that petitioners from the Baiga community are immediately allowed access sterilization services at a health facility of their choice that authorized to conduct such procedures.The hearing was held on Wednesday at the Bilaspur high court under the bench of Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi and Justice Parth Prateem Sahu.

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