Who's responsible? It's a wake up call…

....a very nice article, must read for all men and women.

A reputed gynecologist in Mumbai. He has performed more then 30,000 family planning operations in the state sponsored medical camps so far. And for this social service, the President of India honored the doctor with a gold medal. Impressive. Isn't it?

The gender benderNow we asked the good doctor, 'Sir, in these 30,000 cases, how many were males, and how many women?'The doctor didn't reply immediately. He thought for a while, looked at the other doctor sitting there and disclosed that there were very few males." But of course, don't make any assumptions on this basis. I am a gynecologist so naturally I see more female patients," he explained.Alright, we agreed. And then inquired if there was any national statistics available. We just want to know the ratio of male to female, in family planning operations. Say, if you have a hundred people asking to go through this kind of surgery, how many of them would be males? Without mincing words he said, if you take, say hundred such cases, the probability of finding not a single male, amongst it will be very high. In our country, most of the time it is the woman, who goes for this kind of surgery.Bad ratioOk. So what? A couple decides not to have any more children, then does it matter who goes under the scalpel? Well, looking at it superficially, it doesn't matter. In fact it is a very good decision for the family and also for the whole country not to have too many children. But have you ever asked why only women go forward to do this good deed?The Indian Government statistics say that in the total number of family planning operations done in our country, males constitute only three percent. Yes sir, when a couple decides to stop having children, only 3 out of 100 families will send a man to the operation theatre. Why?Why not him?Now look at the advertisements, publicity campaigns, public awareness programs taken up by our erstwhile Government...Most of the time we see women discussing the issue. One woman saying to the other, hey why don't you use so and so contraceptive. Or fix a loop...or get the surgery done...why the wise people sitting up there don't give the same advice to our male population?Forget about surgery, almost all the experiments taken up worldwide to curb the population explosion are done on women. Have you ever heard about a contraceptive pill or injection for a man? Perhaps even the scientific community thinks that it is solely the womenfolk's responsibility to control the expanding menace of human mass.

Who's responsible?It's a wake up call
Age-old fearIf you ask for the reason or the logic behind this, you won't get a satisfactory reply. We all have taken it for granted that it is the woman's responsibility. You give birth. So now you go and stop. Actually by saying this man knowingly or unknowingly is trying to hide his age-old fear. The fear of impotency.It is not my assumption. The doctors and sociologists would vouch for it. We might claim to have become very educated and modern. But even amongst the elite crowd there are males who think that the family planning surgery would render them weaker, less virile, less of a man.
The good doctor talking to us was of the belief that even women think this way. The government funded institutes and their volunteers go door-to-door, city-to-city, village to village, to create awareness in women. Then why can't they also educate the males? Any doctor will tell you that the sexual energy of a man or a woman is not affected by this kind of surgery.It's time to wake upAnd from the medical point of view, it is easier to perform this surgery (vasectomy) on man then on woman (tubectomy). A good doctor can perform vasectomy on the patient in less than half an hour and send him home or even directly to his office.On other hand, tubectomy done on a woman is a lengthier procedure and the patient normally is advised to take rest for a few days. Still it is the women, we see most of the time, in the operation theatre. Because it is not considered a manly thing to do....Contraceptive pills, injections, sponge, body patches...a woman has such a wide choice, we declare proudly. The government spends lakhs of rupees in teaching women how to use these wonderful inventions. But it is definitely not something to feel happy about for the woman. The government is not concerned about the general health of its woman population. The policy makers worry only about the population explosion and how to stop it. They rarely bother to spend this kind of money or pay attention to women's other health issues. And we all know that most of the birth control devices used by women have side effects. Bleeding, weight gain, nausea.... all these are common complaints. Still the men turn a deaf ear.Who's responsible?You might mention condoms. But how many married men use it? There is one advertisement for birth control pills, where a very modern looking woman saying, I don't rely on my husband for such important matters. What she means is the man would forget the condom but she won't forget her pills!
Very nice, very commendable, would you say?
Hey, if the man really cares for his wife, why can't he say, darling you don'tworry; family planning will be my responsibility?