Rajashri Dasgupta
Spring 2005
Series Number: 34
Women’s groups in India are only too aware that the “real battles” are fought outside the court room. In 1998, when the Supreme Court of India banned quinacrine sterilization (QS) because its long-term effects on women are unknown and are potentially harmful, activists knew they had to continue the struggle outside the courts. Their fears proved true when a group of medical practitioners violated the ban on the use of the drug for female sterilization.