Thaindian News

Jaipur, Nov 1 (IANS) Get sterilised, win a Nano or maybe a motorcycle, a TV or refrigerator! Another Rajasthan district has put up such tantalising offers on lottery basis to men who go in for sterilisation.

After Jhunjhunu and Pali introduced the scheme earlier this year, it is now Bhilwara district where a Nano car has been put on offer for those going in for sterilisation at government-organised camps from Nov 1 to Dec 31.

“We have decided to give away a Nano car to a lucky lottery winner after a sterliasation drive. Many other items like motorcycles, TVs and refrigerators will also be offered to those who get sterilized in the government-organised camps,” a senior district administration official told IANS.

“The scheme is likely to get a good response from people, and we expect the sterilisation numbers to increase by a substantial margin,’ he added.

In August and July this year, the district administration of Pali and Jhunjhunu had announced similar schemes respectively.

According to the 2011 census, Rajasthan’s population is over 6.86 crore.

The state’s medical and health department has set sterilisation targets for each district on the basis of the rate of population growth.

From April 2010 to February 2011, over 296,000 sterilisation operations were carried out in the state. This was 61.58 percent of the target set for fiscal 2010-11.

Some activists had earlier alleged that the medical and health department and its agents were duping and luring poor men into undergo sterilisation to meet annual targets on such surgeries.

Activists had said there were several complaints of men being sterilised after being lured to health centres by vasectomy agents on the pretext of getting their medical check-ups done.