Men run scared from sterilisation

HYDERABAD: Men are shying away from the scalpel and sterilisation operations, leading to a sharp drop in the number of vasectomies in the state over the past three years.
On the other hand, the total number of sterilisations is showing an upward trend.
As men shy away, women have to undergo the comparatively more complicated, more risky and costlier tubectomy or other family planning procedures.
This is according to the ‘provisional statistics’ collected by the Commisionerate of Family Welfare for the year 2002-2003 from both government and private sectors.
Between April 1, 2002 and March 31, 2003, a total of 8,33,944 sterilisations were conducted in the state.
However, only 42,406 procedures were conducted on men and a whopping 7,91,538 sterilisations were on women.
This figure of 42,406 vasectomies has fallen from the 44,486 procedures conducted in 2001-2002.
Further, over the past three years, the figure has fallen by 20,971; from 63,337 vasectomies in 2000-2001 to 42,406 in 2002-2003.However, the total number of sterilisations has increased from 8,14,335 in 2000-2001 to 8,33,944 in 2002-2003, indicating that women are increasingly undergoing this procedure.
Kurnool with 39 procedures, Anantapur with 21 and Mahbubnagar with 18 are at the bottom and Karimnagar with 10,426, Warangal with 9,515 and Visakhapatnam with 9,100 top.
According to officials involved in the campaign, male sterilisation is high in the tribal belts of Karimnagar, Warangal,Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and Khammam, as female sterilisation is not encouraged among these people.
Though, lakhs of rupees have been spent on information, education and communication activities to promote male sterilisation by the state and central governments, the campaign has failed, a health department official said.