Sindh govt launches Vasectomy campaign to control population

KARACHI: The Sindh government has introduced an intensified drive to meet the province‘s fast-growing population, which adds around 1.4 million new residents every year, tantamount to incorporating a fresh district every year.

The drive aims to encourage male sterilisation by vasectomy and increase access to self-injectables and self-insertion contraceptives for women.

Province-Wide Outreach and Education

Sindh Population Welfare Secretary Hafeezullah Abbasi said that the department, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, will carry out door-to-door surveys in all 1,600 union councils.

The programme also aims for approximately five million factory workers via workplace awareness campaigns, and students at schools and universities will be taught about the social and economic effects of uncontrolled population growth.

“Because men are responsible for making big decisions in the household, their involvement in these programmes is necessary,” Abbasi stated.

He mentioned that 3,000 men in Sindh have already undergone vasectomy, several because of inherited blood disorders like thalassemia or simply because they were HIV/AIDS positive.

Contraceptive services, such as sterilisation, birth-spacing devices, oral pills, and the Sayana Press, a self-injectable contraceptive providing a three-month pregnancy gap — especially in coastal and island areas — are being offered by the government. Abbasi stated that Sayana Press has been used approximately 1.3 million times since 2018.

Administration Director Faisal Meher assured that sterilisation kits, IUCDs, implants, injections, and pills are provided regularly to big hospitals, the Health Department, and NGOs.

Family planning centres in 20 gynaecology wards of nine big hospitals provide IUCDs, which are effective for as long as 10 years, and implants, which last three to five years.

Targets and Progress

Sindh‘s contraceptive rate was 31% in 2017-18. The authorities are targeting the figure to be raised to 47% by 2025 and 57% by 2030. Cases of male sterilisation in Karachi have increased dramatically, from a mere 23 to 2,500 in 2022. Over 1,000 of the NGO HANDS‘s male mobilisers are being trained to educate people about vasectomy.

Early rural marriages equate to most women producing six to eight children by the time they turn 30, Meher added, and that explains the programme‘s urgency.

What is a Vasectomy?

Vasectomy is a quick surgical operation that cuts or blocks off the vas deferens to stop the release of sperm during ejaculation.

Erection, libido, orgasm, and the capacity to ejaculate are not affected, even though semen will no longer include sperm. The operation is permanent, and men are generally able to return to sexual activity within one or two weeks after receiving advice from their doctor.

Funded by Johns Hopkins University, SZABIST University, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the programme is part of Sindh‘s commitment to reaching its Family Planning 2030 objectives.