Is India about to throw away the condom?

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Is India about to throw away the condom?

IANS [WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2004 02:31:53 PM]

MAHABALIPURAM : Healthcare providers have expressed concern that the

government's Rural Health Mission emphasises " surgical intervention "

to control the population, thereby marginalizing the condom, a major

AIDS control tool.

As the union health ministry steams ahead with its National Rural

Health Mission, a host of NGOs and government organisations meeting

voiced fears of a shift towards sterilisation-based family planning --

that existed in the Emergency years -- rather than on aggressive

condom use promotion.

They also pointed out that HIV/AIDS and cancer had been left out of

the ambit of the rural healthcare mission. This is despite recent data

showing that HIV and AIDS were spreading rapidly in rural India.

A " statement of concern " about the Rural Health Mission's draft and

its objectives was issued by the gathering, comprising organisations

like the Pune-based Foundation for Research in Community Health, the

Community Health Cell in Bangalore and the Population Foundation of

India.

" We are concerned that this programme should not become a mere

strategy for population control, " the statement said.

Activists pointed out that in the 1980s, when HIV/AIDS was discovered,

the condom which was promoted for family planning also proved to be a

handy safe-sex tool for AIDS control.

AIDS/HIV care groups were worried about the Rural Health Mission draft

containing " an intention for sharply targeted population control

programmes for 150-odd high fertility districts " through sterilisation.

The " high fertility " districts were identified " on the basis of a

single criterion, namely high birth order, which is a proxy indicator

for total fertility rate (TFR) " , the activists said.

" The government is looking at merging the family welfare and rural

health department, which will give enormous authority to the body

created to push the rural health mission, " said Bobby of the

Centre for Sustainable Health and Development.

The key component would be the creation of the 'accredited social

health worker' (ASHA) countrywide who would be accountable to elected

local governments.

" Performance based remunerations will drive the ASHA worker to

motivate people to take the surgical option, sterilisation, for family

planning. Promoting the use of condom, for which India has campaigned

and spent millions for decades, is likely to be marginalized, " said.

" The decreased use of condoms will increase the spread of AIDS/HIV and

unprotected sex, " he added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/909167.cms