Mothers who lost their children in Jhalawar school tragedy find hope with reverse sterilisation

Binti Bai and Raju Bai, two mothers who lost their children in the tragic collapse of a school in Piplodi, Jhalawar, are set to regain their motherhood through recanalisation surgery.

Both women had undergone sterilisation under the family welfare initiative before the tragedy on July 25 this year, when a portion of a government school in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district collapsed just as the students were assembling for morning prayers, killing seven children and leaving 28 injured, some of them critically.

Raju Bai, whose son Kartik (10) died in the tragedy, had her sterilisation reversal surgery last month. Meanwhile, Binti Bai, who lost her son Kanha (7) and daughter Meena (10) in the incident, underwent the surgery on Wednesday.

“The loss of their children left both mothers in profound shock and depression after the tragedy. We provided them with counselling from our psychologists and encouraged them to regain motherhood through recanalisation,” said Dr Sajid Khan, Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) of Jhalawar.

“Recanalisation is performed in the rarest of the rare cases, and we chose to conduct it in Jhalawar to offer hope to the families affected by the tragedy,” he explained further.

At the direction of the district collector, both women would receive access to the IVF facilities available in Kota and Jaipur, Dr Khan noted.

During visits to the bereaved families after the tragedy, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and MP Dushyant Singh instructed the district collector to arrange for sterilisation reversal surgeries for the two women.

District Collector Ajay Singh Rathore directed Dr Khan to form a medical team to examine the women for sterilisation reversal, allowing them to experience motherhood once again following their devastating losses.

Following this, Dr Khan arranged for Raju Bai’s sterilisation reversal operation at Heera Bai Kanwar Women’s Hospital in Jhalawar. On Wednesday, Binti Bai’s operation was successfully conducted by Dr Madhurima Verma and her team at the same hospital.