Shabana, Dutt in a new role!

Last year, the PMC had fixed a target of 14,500 surgeries to be performed as part of the family planning programme. The dismal 1.5 per cent men opting for vasectomies was further supported by the survey of four hospitals carried out from April to October this year. For instance out of 1058 operations conducted at Sassoon Hospital during this tenure, only four vasectomies were performed.

While the PMC-run Dalvi and Sonawane nursing homes reported no vasectomies of a total of 179 and 363 performed respectively, Kamla Nehru hospital registered only one vasectomy of a total of 211 operations conducted under the programme.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor said this year’s target had been fixed at 14,222 operations under the programme. Only 6,510 surgeries were performed, Kapoor said lamenting that Wadia Hospital only registered 28 per cent of the operations while Sutika Seva Mandir and PMC’s hospital at Bopodi reported only 35 and 31 per cent of the operations carried out respectively.

“We have at least 6.5 lakh people staying in slums where the gender bias is more acute,” rued Kapoor who took the task of making a video film to generate awareness among the slum-dwellers. His letters to Shabana Azmi and Sunil Dutt were warmly responded to with even a few suggestions on contacting Pune-based film-makers Jayoo and Nachiket Patwardhan.

“I believe firmly that family planning is a complex issue and we need to ensure that the video is made more dynamic than routine so that the message leads to effective results,” Shabana replied in her letter expressing willingness to participate in the video. Kapoor however refuses to submit the proposal to the PMC’s standing committee for funds, preferring to cough up resources from corporate groups.