328
CONTEMPORARY NO' NSENSE
STERILIZATION PROGRAM FOR MEN
IN INDIAN TOWN IS BEARING FRUIT
ERNAKULAN,
India - More than 26,000 men have been sterilized
here since July 1 in the first half of a month-long family planning fes–
tival, the largest ever held in India.
"We hope to sterilize 50,000 by the end of the month," a family
planning official said recently.
Ninety doctors working in two shifts were performing the vasectomies
in 50 operating cubicles set up on the floor of the auditorium of the
town hall here, with operations beginning at 9 a.m. and, on occasion,
going on as late as 2 a.m.
Hundreds of men, some from as far as 150 miles away, stepped up
for the 10-minute operation in the carnival-like atmosphere of huge tents
set up on the town hall lawn.
After the operation, each patient received gifts worth 110 rupees,
including 25 rupees in cash. The gifts included a free lottery ticket, a
gaily colored dress sari for the man's wife, three kilos of rice, a chit for
a week's rations, an umbrella or dhoti garment for the man himself and
a flight bag or plastic bucket to carry it all home in.
Each man volunteering for sterilization must certify that he is
married and declare how many children he has.
If
he has only one, he
is rejected and advised to use other methods of birth control. Such has
been the appeal of the festival's gift package that the doctors have had
to turn down hundreds of men who were senile.
(Boston Globe,
July 19, 1971.)
HEADLINERS
ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY HAS 'TOO MUCH
WORK' TO GO CRUSADING
(New York Times,
May 27, 1970.)
INTERSTATES BRING CRIME TO UPPER VALLEY
(Connecticut Valley Reporter,
June 16, 1971.)
POISONOUS CHEMICAL DUMPED IN HUDSON;
WATER CALLED SAFE
(New York Times,
April 11, 1971.)
Contributed by William Mather Boardman, Woodstock, New York.
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