For decades, India has put controversial sterilisation drives at the heart of its efforts to combat population growth. But last year, the country’s top court ordered the government to close sterilisation camps within three years, following the deaths of hundreds of mainly poor rural women. The operations were carried out in unsafe conditions, with bribes used to persuade rural women to submit to sterilisation. While women will still be able to undergo sterilisation, the camps run by state governments or local NGOs will be illegal. The supreme court judgment raised a wider hope that India would move away from family planning policies that place the onus on women, and provide a broader range of contraception.

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