Bangladesh is planning to introduce voluntary sterilisation in its overcrowded Rohingya camps, where nearly a million refugees are fighting for space, after efforts to encourage birth control failed.
Every month 250 people undergo sterilisation in Cox's Bazar. Pic/AFP
Pintu Kanti Bhattacharjee, who heads the family planning service in the district of Cox's Bazar where the camps are based, said there was little awareness of birth control among the Rohingya. He said large families were the norm in the camps, where some parents had up to 19 children and many Rohingya men have more than one wife. District family planning authorities have launched a drive to provide contraception, but say they have so far managed to distribute only 549 packets of condoms among the refugees. They have asked the government to approve a plan to launch vasectomies for Rohingya men and tubectomies for women.
