Pune: On the occasion of World Population Day on Tuesday, the district health department will be felicitating two doctors working in the district and promoting family planning, Dr Prashant Mahajan from Indapur and Dr Rajendra Shinde from Shirur, for their exceptional contribution for carrying out tubectomy and ‘No Scalpel Vasectomy’ (NSV) surgeries respectively.
Dr Mahajan has performed 348 tubectomy or female sterilisation operations in the district since January 2017. Last year, he has performed over 500 similar operations in Indapur taluka near Pune city. Dr Shinde has performed over 200 NSV or male sterilisation operations in the last year, however, this year, the number is as less as two till date.
Speaking about the myth and awareness about vasectomy, Shinde noted that there is more fear despite the awareness.
“We conduct awareness camps for these surgeries and those who want to undergo one are operated on immediately.
However, during my travels, I have witnessed that not only men but also women feel that the operation will lead to some physical issues with men. For example, many feel that their physical strength might lessen. Such things are shear misconceptions,” said Shinde. He further added that women also feel the same, but after a lot of counselling and explanations, men agree to undergo the vasectomy. This also clarifies the less number of surgeries, noted Shinde.
“We usually advise male sterilisation in families where the women are not able to undergo sterilisation due to medical conditions,” said Shinde.
July 11 is World Population Day
Why family planning?
Speaking about the perspective of men and women in the rural setup, Dr Mahajan noted that it is very crucial to explain the importance of family planning.
Problems like finance management and malnutrition are effectively tackled by family planning, as the couple can decide how big their family is. He further noted that family planning has helped many women in taking good care of themselves and in turn delivering a healthy child.
“We counsel second time and third-time mothers and explain to them that these surgeries help them to give proper lifestyle to their children and plan their education. Many women patients earlier used to get very hesitant about performing tubectomy. But after regular counselling of families, we are able to convince most of the patients,” noted Mahajan.
Why always she?
According to the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-2016), in Pune district, only 60.9 per cent rural women undergo female sterilisation whereas no male sterilisation was done during the time of the survey.
