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INDIA: Feature StoriesIndia Overview | Current Projects | Publications | Feature Stories
Men Pledge Commitment to Family Planning
July 31, 2007
PRACHAR Promotes Non-Scalpel Vasectomy in Bihar
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A man undergoes a non-scalpel vasectomy at the government primary health center in Gaya, Bihar.
| Gaya, India: As he walked out of the operation room of the government primary health center, Anup Kumar Sinha, father of two, felt the gaze of a crowd upon him. Just outside, a group of men had gathered from surrounding villages, all with one thing in common: The desire to limit the size of their families. Eagerly, they had waited, while Sinha became the first of the group to undergo their contraceptive method of choice, the non-scalpel vasectomy. Now, striding toward the crowd without a hitch, he paused and addressed his colleagues, doing his best to erase their fears and doubts:
“Friends, this operation is nothing. I couldn’t feel anything. You people don’t lose heart.”
This was the scene at the first of two day-long vasectomy camps, jointly organized by the NGO Samagra Seva Kendra (SSK), a local partner of Pathfinder International’s Promoting Change in Reproductive Behavior (PRACHAR) Project, in Bihar State of India. Following Anup’s lead, a total of 69 men would undergo the minimally invasive procedure. Though they represent a small fraction of the long-term family planning clients reached by PRACHAR, they show an exceptional level of acceptance in a culture where women traditionally face extreme social and economic inequality, vasectomy is often shrouded in myth, and family planning is not generally an immediate concern of men.
This newfound interest in vasectomy is part of a general increase in demand for long-term family planning methods in PRACHAR intervention areas. Though PRACHAR focuses mainly on reaching young couples by promoting delayed marriage and childbirth, and the spacing of subsequent children the project’s long-term presence in nearly 450 villages has sparked interest among couples looking not to space their births, but to cap the size of their families. In the past year, Pathfinder has made a strong effort to establish linkages with government district hospitals, primary health centers, and private agencies offering both vasectomy and tubectomy services. As a result of the concerted efforts of all PRACHAR partners, a total of 421 women along with the 69 men underwent sterilization in FY 2007.
These impressive figures are the result of pioneering efforts by Pathfinder partners at the grassroots level including SSK. Rekha Masilamani, Pathfinder International/India Country Representative, attributes demand among men in particular, to the work of Mr. Chedi Prasad, SSK Project Director, whose organization implements several community-based women’s empowerment projects in addition to its work with PRACHAR. According to Masilamani, Mr. Prasad worked unrelentingly, visiting village after village, meeting potential beneficiaries and motivating them by explaining just how simple the non-scalpel vasectomy procedure is.
“In vasectomy, there is neither any need of long incision nor intake of medicines,” says Muneshwar Yadav, father of three, and vasectomy recipient at the urging of Prasad. “In tubectomy, a long incision and taking medicines are needed.”
“My wife is physically weak”, added Dinesh Kumar, father of five. “She would have more problems going for tubectomy, and as a result the rearing of our children would have suffered.”
Bihar, home to the PRACHAR Project, is one of the least developed and most populous of India’s 28 states, and has been largely unaffected by the rapid economic and social development that other parts of the country have seen in recent decades. With 84 percent of its population living in rural areas, and 80 percent belonging to the lower castes, the region has experienced little upward mobility, and total fertility has actually risen from 3.7 to 4 children per woman since 1998. With flooding and other environmental problems of increasing concern, promoting acceptance of family planning is ever-critical and catching on.
“A family with too many children faces the problem of feeding them and giving them proper education,” says Yadav. “The problem of repeated bearing of children is stopped if one adopts a permanent method of sterilization.”
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