Notwithstanding lucrative incentives, lower percentage of men are going for family planning measures in Bihar as revealed by falling graph of male sterilisation.
According to figures available with the Bihar Health Society, the percentage of male sterilisation has dropped in recent years.
Male sterilisation percentage which was 2.05 in 2010-11 in the state slided to 1.3 per cent in 2011-12 and 1 per cent in 2012-13, the statistics said.
Reeling out figures, it said only 6,180 men came forward for sterilisation in the state in 2012-13 as compared to 7146 in 2011-12. A total of 10367 men availed family planning measures in 2010-11 in the state.
Sources in the Health department attributes this sorry condition to "male mindset" and believe prevalent in the society that a man gets weak after operation. "It has been seen that men push their wives to go for the family planning," they said.
While Purnea district shows best result in terms of male sterilisation programme, neighbouring Kisanganj has lowest percentage of male opting for the measures.
Bihar tops the nation in total fertility rate at 3.6. TFR is 3.4 for Uttar Pradesh, 3.1 for Madhya Pradesh while it is 1.8 for Maharashtra and 1.7 for West Bengal.
The state government has been providing lucrative incentives to popularise planning measures among men but the falling percentage suggest these were not cutting much ice with the people.
While only Rs 600 is paid to a woman opting for family planning operation, the sum is almost double at Rs 1,100 for a man.
Likewise, a sum of Rs 100 is paid to a "motivator" to convince a woman to opt for sterilisation the same is Rs 200 in case for a man, they said.
Secretary, Bihar Health Society, which coordinates all the health schemes, Sanjay Kumar told PTI that the government has intensified campaign for perking up sterlisation among men through TV and radio.
Number of doctors for male sterlisation has also been increased from 30 earlier to 57 now, he said.
