DC DEBATE: FP focus needs to shift from women to men
Ranjana Kumari Vs Shatabadi Subodh Pandey
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Ranjana Kumari: Why does the onus lie on women?
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The death of 13 women in Chhat-tisgarh during a mass sterilisation camp has raised some serious issues on the most popular form of family planning in India i.e. female sterilisation. For women, sterilisation is usually done as tubal ligation, a minimally invasive surgery where the fallopian tubes are cut and tied off.
For men, it’s the vasectomy, a procedure in which the vas deferens is cut and tied. Still, more than one-third of married Indian women undergo sterilisation, as compared to just one per cent of Indian men.
It is disheartening to know that while many of the women, who were sterilised during the camp in Chhattisgarh belonged to the endangered Baiga tribe. The Constitution bars this tribe from adopting any kind of family planning measures. Yet, many of them were forced and coaxed to undergo tubectomy at the camp held in Bilaspur. It is not only unfair, but irrational to put the onus of population control entirely on women as men in India are rarely seen opting for vasectomy for the fear of losing virility.
Also, the population control and contraception measures only target rural women, with no planned strategy to tap the urban middle class or rich popu-lation. Poor rural women have to bear the conse-quences of poorly funded sterilisation programmes. It is a risky surgery for women as compared to men, and many women end up paying a huge price by losing their lives.
Most countries offer women a mix of modern methods of contraception including oral contraceptive pills, intra-uterine devices (IUDs), injections and condoms along with sterilisation. In India, these exist mostly on paper, as women who are herded to sterilisation camps are not even counselled about alternative contraception methods. Tubectomies still contribute to nearly 38 per cent of family planning measures, whereas in the case of men it is only 0.19 per cent.
Dr Ranjana Kumari is director, Centre for Social Research
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Shatabadi Subodh Pandey: There’ll be extremely few takers
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The population control mission may face the prospect of being derailed if there are any radical changes in the policy by shifting the focus of family planning from women to men considering the current social, economical and cultural scenario, particularly in rural India. The Chhattisgarh sterilisation tragedy is only a man-made aberration that should not become a catalyst for reviewing the existing women-centric family planning to shift focus to male sterilisation.
Tragedies do not discriminate on the basis of gender. Of course, no one can deny the fact that family planning procedure for women is more complex than for men. But it is vice-versa if the socio-cultural aspect of the issue, particularly in rural India, is taken into account.
Tragically, the key reason behind the present trend of women-specific family planning continues to be social. The social stigma attached to male sterilisation not only dissuades men from opting for vasectomy, but often make their spouses volunteer themselves to go under the knife to take up the sole responsibility of rationalising the family size.
In rural areas, men are scared of being called a castrated person by the acquaintances if he undergoes sterilisation. Besides, the fear of being incapacitated after vasec-tomy, a misconception, lurks in the subconscious mind of illiterate or semi-literate men. Another social reason that may prove hindrance in shifting focus of family planning from women to men is that widow marriage is yet to be accepted in rural society whereas that of a widower is a common feature. The success of population control hinges on making it rural-specific. The religious aspect, particularly for Muslims, should also not be completely ignored. Any attempt to thrust men-centric FP on society without creating awareness among the community may face stiff resistance.
Shatabadi Subodh Pandey is chairperson, Chhattisgarh State Child Protection Commission
