Here’s one shortage that makes Health officials in J-K happy

A field survey by the Family Welfare Department, too, confirms the sudden spurt in demand.

JK Drug Controller, Aslam Khateeb, said: ‘‘Our field staff has conducted a survey and we have found that in Srinagar alone, around 2 to 2.5 lakh condoms are sold every month… Our numbers can well be less than the actual, especially since we don’t keep track of sales’’.

‘‘It is unbelievable,’’ Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, Assistant Director, Family Welfare department, told The Indian Express. ‘‘It is clear that the level of awareness among the people have risen.’’

The Family Welfare Department distributes free condoms at various health centres across the State.

Rehman said the data available with his department shows a clear upward trend.

The Family Welfare department distributed 11 lakh condoms in 2002. ‘‘In 2003, the number rose to 18 lakh, while in 2004, it increased to 26 lakh, the department’s data reveals,’’ said Rehman.

The government feels that the spurt in demand is a positive trend and shows a break from the past, especially as contraception has always been a taboo. Abdul Gani Hakeem, Information, Education and Communication Officer with the Directorate of J-K Health, who had been working for the Family Welfare department earlier, said: ‘‘People working in Family Welfare were looked down upon in the society. When I joined this department in 1980s, we could not face our neighbours.’’