The Quality of Services at Laparoscopic Sterilization Camps in Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

In 1952 the Indian government adopted a population policy establishing a national family planning program, which it has constantly pursued, modified, and expanded. In the 1960s the program began offering a wide choice of contraceptive methods, and later it introduced an incentive scheme for both acceptors and service providers (Conly and Camp 1992).

Although the government has always aimed to provide an array of contraceptive methods, much of the history of the program has consisted of a series of campaigns focusing on a single method. The Lippes loop intrauterine device was promoted through intensive campaigns in the 1960s, and male sterilization (vasectomy) was aggressively promoted in the mid-1970s. Public reaction to overzeal-ousness in recruiting acceptors led to a revised policy in 1978 that stressed the voluntary nature of the program (Conly and Camp 1992). In the 1980s, the program introduced the laparoscopic technique of female sterilization, which is simpler and less traumatic than the more common method of tubal ligation, and today almost a third of all tubectomies are laparoscopic cases (GOI 1991).