While 1.35 lakh women underwent sterilisation in eight months in Madhya Pradesh, just 1,254 men, or 0.92% of the those who opted for the birth control surgery in the period, went for it, despite being offered a higher standard incentive, according to the National Health Mission (NHM).
“The perceived fear of the loss of virility and working capacity among men post-surgery holds them back. And women disproportionately bear the burden of getting sterilised,” said an official at the NHM’s State office, requesting anonymity.
Starker disparity
The disparity is starker in non-tribal districts. From April to December 7, of the 23 districts where men had sought vasectomy in single digits, 70% fell in this category. Not even one male had sought the procedure in Tikamgarh and Alirajpur. While in Balaghat, where every fifth person is a tribal, 201 men had gone for the permanent contraception method, the most in the State.
“Family planning in the non-tribal region of Chambal-Gwalior has been a challenge owing to the prevailing feudal order there,” Chhavi Bhardwaj, NHM State Director told The Hindu . “It is difficult to break deep-set biases there. As a result, the responsibility for family planning falls more on women.”
Surgeons across camps are performing no-scalpel vasectomy, not requiring incisions in tubes that carry sperm, and causing less bleeding and having a faster recovery period. “It is a safe procedure. And men need to understand it won’t affect their sexual health or capacity to work,” said the official.
Medicines for men
Like in the case of sterilised women, she said, men were discharged from a health centre one hour after the surgery and could resume normal duties the next day. “However, sterilised women don’t need additional contraceptives. Men may need medicines in the 90-day period of spermatogenesis, the process of the development of sperm cells.”
In the 25 high-fertility districts having a total fertility rate of three and above, covered under the Centre’s Parivar Vikas Yojana, women receive an incentive of ₹2,000 for getting sterilised six months after delivery. They receive ₹3,000 for getting sterilised only immediately after delivery. For no- scalpel vasectomy, men receive a standard ₹3,000.
Patient load
“Tribal patients are not loath to seek sterilisation during any part of the year, whereas most other communities seek it during winters, carrying the misconception that it would be better for health then,” said Ms. Bhardwaj. As a result, hospitals were faced with additional patient load in December and January, and made to grapple with limited infrastructure. In the past two weeks, sterilised women have been made to lie on the floors after surgeries in Vidisha, Chhatarpur and Shivpuri.
