After decades of female sterilization as a principal birth control method, India hopes to transition to injectable contraceptives within the coming year. Female sterilization has dominated India’s contraceptives market more than any other nation, with an average of roughly four million tubal ligations performed on an annual basis. According to the New York Times, India’s emphasis on providing modern birth control methods is largely a result of the nation’s rapidly enlarging population. China is predicted to soon rank second to India in total population as over 400 million additional citizens are expected to call India home within the next 34 years. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to provide free injectable contraceptives as a method to control the country’s expanding population without placing women’s health at risk. According to the New York Times, India’s emphasis on providing modern birth control methods is largely a result of the nation’s rapidly enlarging population. China is predicted to soon rank second to India in total population as over 400 million additional citizens are expected to call India home within the next 34 years. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to provide free injectable contraceptives as a method to control the country’s expanding population without placing women’s health at risk. Under the current contraceptive system, women with two or fewer children receive 1,000 rupees (roughly 20 USD) for undergoing the surgery, while those with more children are entitled to only 240 rupees. The female sterilization process is often conducted in group settings, with multiple women undergoing tubal ligation at the same time and often with limited resources and medical professionals. India’s traditional contraceptive method of tubal ligation sparked international protest after the deaths of 13 women during a female sterilization procedure in 2014. Despite Modi’s promises to launch thorough investigations as to the women’s deaths, India’s Health Ministry instead instructed 11 state governments to offer additional payments for women receiving sterilization, according to a New York Times report. Between 2009 and 2012, India has paid compensation for the deaths of over 500 women as a result of tubal ligation. The transition to injectable contraceptives occurs after years of advocacy for the new method from several international organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who maintain that injectable contraceptives should be made available to all women of childbearing age. Injectable contraceptives have been available through India’s private sector since 1993. C.K. Mishra of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced this past month that he “thought it was incumbent on the government to provide it as a choice." However, not everyone is happy with India’s decision to offer women the choice of injectable contraceptives as a new method of birth control. Declaring their opposition to the introduction of injectable contraceptives, several of India’s women’s activist organizations published a letter to the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare this September. Arguments against the new birth control contend that India is ill-prepared to monitor the drug’s usage or its side effects, and the pharmaceutical companies may abuse their new market niche solely for profit. The implementation of injectable contraceptives won’t be widespread in India immediately, with only a selected number of hospitals and medical colleges permitted to use the new contraceptive method right away. Reflecting upon India’s transition to greater choice in public birth control options, Mishra notes, “We want to be very careful. We don’t want to put a single step wrong," as reported by The New York Times. This article was written by Lizzy Leclaire. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Creative Commons