This paper investigates the impact of a unique government-mandated male sterilization program that occurred in India on the rise of violence. Launched in April 1976, this program predominantly targeted husbands with more than two children and was heterogeneously implemented across India over 10 months. Using various household surveys and newly digitised historical data sources, we study whether this program triggered unintended effects on violence. Using various difference-in-differences strategies, exploiting geographical variation in coercion intensity, we find that an increase of 1 percentage point in exposure to this program led to an increase in violent crime rates by 1.6% persistent until 2004. This effect is driven by rapes and murders, which increase respectively by 4.6% and 1%. Additionally, we find that districts with high coercion intensity correlate with higher levels of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), acceptance of IPV, lower bargaining power of women and lower contraception adoption.