Madhya Pradesh: Condoms, birth control pills part of ‘vanity kit’ at mass wedding event

A mass wedding in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh grabbed headlines after condoms and contraceptive pills were found inside make-up boxes given to brides as gifts. Media reports have mentioned that the ceremony took place in Jhabua district on Monday.

As many as 296 couples tied the knot at the mass wedding organised under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah/Nikah Yojana. The scheme is basically for women who come from economically weaker sections.

When the controversy because of these items in the gift pack started snowballing, a senior district official Bhursingh Rawat laid the blame on the state health department.

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As quoted by the Indian Express report, Rawat said that the health officials might have planned providing condoms and contraceptives to the new couples to raise awareness regarding family planning.

Rawat told The Indian Express: "We are not responsible for distributing condoms and contraceptive pills. There is no provision in the Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah for the provision of such a kit."

"We have told the local administration officials to keep a check on this in future and conduct a door-to-door campaign instead of distributing condoms at the mass weddings. This is a tribal area with a low literacy rate. People don’t have a lot of scientific temperament, so keeping that in view we will make sure this doesn’t happen again," he added.

The news outlet quoted Dr Ashok Patel, a district family and welfare officer, as saying: "There was confusion at the event. We saw over 200 newlyweds at one place and thought we could target them. We had over 200 of our own health workers who educated them on the kit."

"But some people could not understand… there were couples who thought this was a part of dowry… It would take us over one month to track them all down and distribute these kits,” Patel added, divulging details about the 'Nai pahal' kit, which is provided to newly married couples by the local ASHA workers.

Was it a well-intended move?

UN's World Population Prospects 2022 had projected India to surpass China as the world's most populous country in the mid of 2023 and the nation will have now more population than China. UN report estimated that India's population is 1.4286 billion while China's stood at 1.4257 billion.

While the population also generates infinite possibilities, experts have called for reforms and policies to control the growth in order to provide a better quality of life to all individuals and sustainable development.

And such a move, aimed at spreading awareness shouldn't become an issue.

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