Nagpur: Nagpur division registered a sharp decline of 60% in family planning operations (both men and women) in 2020 as compared to 2019. Nagpur district saw a steep drop of 65%.
As per the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRHS India) report, it was expected that Family Planning programme would take a 15-23% hit in 2020. But in Nagpur division, it has been three times more than the national estimate.
Nagpur district, which had reported 10,041 sterilizations (family planning operations) in 2019, saw 3,530 operations taking place in 2020. Most of them were conducted in the first three months of the year.
The last nine months of 2020 saw hardly any sterilization being done in Nagpur. Especially, the number of nonscalpel vasectomy (NSV), which is commonly known as male sterilization, saw a steep 97.2% decline in the 2020. As against 363 men in 2019, only 10 performed NSVs in the district in 2020.
The picture was almost same in all other districts of Nagpur division.
Doctors working in community medicine field said it was expected and they are also anticipating the outcome.
“Not just family planning operations, but it became difficult for many couples to access other contraceptive measures too during lockdown. It was expected that family planning programme will suffer and the outcome will start showing in the form of baby boom in the first quarter of 2021,” said Dr Nilima Dave, a family physician.
Hospitals were closed and elective surgeries were stopped for more than six months during Covid-19 period. As family planning operations are considered non-emergency surgeries, they were put on hold.
Many women prefer to get the surgery done right after their second or third pregnancy, but this increases hospital stay. Neither patients nor hospitals were interested in increasing hospital stay during Covid peak period last year. So, as many as 65% operations were skipped in 2020.
Interestingly, the FRHS has also stated that in 2021, as soon as the Covid-19 situation will improve, there will be a surge in demand for family planning and abortion services.
“Once normalcy returns in the next few months, demand for sterilization could sharply increase. In light of the pandemic, clinical service delivery cannot be “business as usual”. With continued social distancing and additional precautions, delivery capacities for sterilization services may shrink or quality of care may get compromised,” reads the FRHS report.
Sterilization in Nagpur division
District
2019
2020
Male sterilization
Female Sterilization
Total
Male sterilization
Female Sterilization
Total
Nagpur
363
9,678
10,041
10
3,520
3,530
Bhandara
730
3,954
4,684
289
1,451
1,740
Gadchiroli
1,603
1,976
3,579
931
1,560
2,491
Gondia
1,140
6,373
7513
245
2,317
2,562
Chandrapur
922
9,644
10,566
55
3,118
3,173
Wardha
65
6,074
6,139
19
2,893
2,912
TOTAL
4,823
37,699
42,522
1,549
14,859
16,408
Family planning badly hit
- The nationwide lockdown imposed from March 25 adversely impacted access to contraceptives
- As per a national estimate, 2.71 crore couples could not get access to contraceptives during lockdown
- About 9 lakh less sterilizations done than expected
- 6 lakh less doses of injectable contraceptives were used than expected in 2020
- This is likely to result in an additional 29.5 million unintended pregnancies in 2021
Data by Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRHS India)