How India's birth control battle falters in rural district

A nurse holds the feet of a newborn baby after it was delivered at the labour ward of a community health centre in Bahadurganj subdivision of Kishanganj district in the state of Bihar, India, March 21, 2023. India's fertility rate, fell to 2.0 in 2019-21, but State health officials estimate Kishanganj's fertility rate at 4.8 or 4.9, creating a population growth problem that the state is trying to curb with the distribution of condoms and birth control pills, as well as the paying 3,000 Indian rupees ($36.50) to women who get sterilised, 4,000 rupees to men, and 500 rupees per surgery to the health workers who perform them. "I talk to women while they are experiencing labour pain and nudge them to undergo sterilisation immediately after delivery," said Parvati Rajak, a medical officer in one of Kishanganj's seven government health centres. "But the final choice is always made by the family." REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

KISHANGANJ, India (Reuters) - Pratima Kumari, a government health worker in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, sets off on her mini scooter every morning, crisscrossing vast corn fields and pineapple orchards to visit villages and meet young, married couples.

She offers condoms and birth control pills for free in the Kishanganj district and talks to the couples about birth control and the benefits of having just two children.