Activists allege ‘under-reporting’ of Maharashtra’s failed male vasectomy cases

Mumbai: Although Maharashtra has not been a major contributor in failed cases of male vasectomies, still activists in the field apprehend that there could be a huge amount of ‘under-reporting’ in such cases, as only 250 cases have been reported in the past one decade. According to RTI data, in past ten years, 15,529 failed vasectomies are reported in the country, with states such as Orissa (7821), Uttar Pradesh (1814) and Karnataka (887) topping the list. Moreover, Maharashtra stands tenth in the list with 260 cases of failed vasectomies since 2008.

A senior official said as compared to the country the rate of failure is stable in the state. In past three years, the state has reported 28 (2017), 32 (2016) and 24 (2015) cases. Districts such as Akola (76), Amravati (50) and Bhandara (32) have reported maximum cases amongst others.

A senior official said this data, does not show the original picture since more cases are coming from rural areas where there is a serious lack of medical infrastructure. “Urban areas of Maharashtra have reported very little or almost no cases in recent years. Even the overall figures are coming down gradually and they will be in control once the medical infrastructure and expertise developed in the rural parts of the state,” said the official.

Vasectomy, or male sterilization, is considered as the most effective surgical method of birth control. The surgeons, during this 15-minute long procedure, cut a tube known as vas deferens to prevent sperms from mixing in semen and ultimately negate their presence during ejaculation.

Dr S K Sikdar, Deputy Commissioner, Family Planning, MHFW said it is the tendency of the tissues to reunite after being severed and in some of the cases, after vas deferens is severed, it re-unites to allow sperms to be mixed with semen but that, of course, is not a failure of doctors. All this is rightly explained to the patients and is also the part of consent forms which are filled by them.

According to a notification by the concerned department, released on July 18, 2014, failed sterilization surgery is compensated by paying the patient Rs 30,000. The cost of treatment up to 60 days arising out of complication following sterilization operation is to be compensated with Rs 25000 and in case of death, the government is liable to pay Rs 2,00,000.

RTI activist, Chetan Kothari, said in past three years, the ministry has paid over Rs 1cr in compensation to the victims. Moreover, the failed sterilisation also leads to financial complications in families and shows inexperience of doctors from certain parts of the state that are not able to perform the simple procedure effectively.