Doctor carries out tubectomy under mobile phone flashlight in Jharkhand's Hazaribag

A video purportedly showing a tubectomy being carried out on a woman under the light of a mobile phone at a government health centre in Hazaribag district of Jharkhand has gone viral, prompting the administration to order an investigation, an official said on Monday.

Tubectomy is a surgical procedure used as a permanent method of contraception for women.

The administration has also decided to take action against the worker who recorded the video and shared it on social media, the official said.


The incident captured in the 29-second clip took place at the Community Health Centre in Keredari. The video shows that the lights went out suddenly during the surgery, after which the procedure continued under the illumination of a mobile phone flashlight.

Ashok Kumar, the civil surgeon of Hazaribagh, told Press Trust of India that a 45-year-old sahiya, or community health worker, recorded the video during the tubectomy procedure and later shared it on social media.

He added that the Community Health Centre has a generator to provide backup power during outages, but switching to the alternate system took some time. During that brief interval, the mobile phone flashlight was used to continue the procedure.

The patient's operation was performed on December 13, while the video surfaced on social media platforms on December 18, Kumar said.

The district health department will take action against the 'sahiya', and a show-cause letter will be issued to her in this regard, the civil surgeon said.

A thorough investigation into the matter is being carried out, he said.