Chennai leads in healthcare, lags in birth control: Experts
Methods such as contraceptive pill and male condom are considered common.
Chennai: Though Tamil Nadu is known for its healthcare and the state boasts of being home to good hospitals, there have been reservations with regard to creating awareness on contraceptive methods.
Women, who are not using contraception, but wish to postpone the next birth, or stop childbearing altogether, form 10.6 per cent in urban areas and 9.6 per cent in rural areas, showed National Family Health Survey (2015-2016).
Methods such as contraceptive pill and male condom are considered common and preferable options while contraceptive injection and female condom are not preferred at all. “The injection is a better option than the pill as its effect lasts for three to six years, however, most are apprehensive to use this method as it has some serious long term side effects such as low bone density and irregular periods,” said gynaecologist Dr Rajashree.
“Most youngsters today do not use the condom and end up having to take a pill on a regular basis. It is important to educate them about the side effects of such measures. There was a large hue and cry when the contraceptive pill was banned in Chennai as it meant that it was taking the control of pregnancies away,” said a health official. Why not use a condom instead, he opined.
“Though many counselling centres around the state may put in some effort to educate the public, they tend to give up due to the low literacy rate. Why not include a chapter on this topic in textbooks at both the school and college levels,” an official at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital said but declined to be identified.
It is mainly because of the orthodox background of many, he added. “There are 10,000 health sub-centres under the 1,889 PHCs in Tamil Nadu, each of which has a village health nurse and health worker who try to meet their target of distributing the maximum number of condoms and pills. Ho-wever, the villagers are not educated on the same,” admitted the official.
The department of family welfare has counselling centres around Chennai city but counselling of students in schools and colleges about these methods is lacking. A senior official claimed that sufficient awareness is being created on the subject in the state.
“Though we deal with HIV patients, we feel we are not equipped enough to educate them about contraceptive methods. We therefore encourage them to go to government hospitals for better counseling,” said T. Isaac, who runs Project AIDS through Care and Training (PACT) of YWAM.
