The method appears convenient - no anaesthesia, no surgery, no hospitalisation. Just seven pellets of a cheap and easily available anti-malarial, helvetica medicine called quinacrine, which is inserted in the uterus. The woman is then promised a lifetime of release from unwanted pregnancies. The cost is a mere Rs 35. Laboratory tests have indicated that quinacrine causes mutation of cells.
Further tests are on to assess if it is carcinogenic as well.
It's a very disturbing development. According to him, most of the women come to these clinics for a Copper T and are sent back instead with quinacrine, a corroding agent that burns the uterine tissue and forms scabs. The inflammatory response results in the formation of scar tissues blocking the fallopian tubes and leading to irreversible sterilisation. According to Prof Shree Muley of McGill University, Canada, the method is most crude, imprecise and could lead to tubal pregnancy, and internal haemorrhage which could be fatal. Not surprisingly then, it has been banned in Chile and Vietnam.