Thousands of poor women in India’s Tamil Nadu State have been offered free cosmetic breast surgery, including implants, state Minister of Health C. Vijayabaskar said on Friday, because “poor people also have a right to look beautiful.”
The southern state is known for its populist schemes, which have included free canteens and providing thousands of disadvantaged people with goats, laptops and bicycles, among other items.
It now is to offer cosmetic breast surgery free of cost to all women — for aesthetic or medical reasons — with priority given to those from the poorest sections of society.
“If a poor woman desires to look beautiful, we will support her financially,” Vijayabaskar said. “Whether they require medical procedures or beauty treatment, it will be free.”
Tamil Nadu is ranked among the top states in India’s public healthcare system, compared with ailing government-run facilities in many other parts of the vast nation.
However, critics of the scheme said the state government is wasting public money on cosmetic surgery instead of spending money on treating serious ailments.
“It is sad that we are now focusing on beauty instead of life-saving surgeries,” Doctor S. Elango, a former public health official in Tamil Nadu, told the Times of India.
Cosmetic breast surgery is becoming increasingly popular in India, but private hospitals charge anywhere from US$2,300 to US$3,800 for a procedure — a year’s wage for most Indians.
More than 90,000 such procedures were carried out in the country in 2016, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, up from 50,600 in 2010.
The scheme was launched on Wednesday at a state-run clinic in state capital Chennai, with a promise to soon expand it to other districts.
V. Ramadevi, who heads the clinic, said that some women want such surgeries, because they “face psychological issues that may severely impact their lives.”
“Their career, [their] marriage are derailed, because they are taunted and their confidence is shattered,” she said, adding that the clinic expects up to 150 women a month to take up the offer.
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