GUWAHATI: Driven by poverty and lured by an offer of Rs 2,000, a 24-year-old man faked marriage and fatherhood to go through a vasectomy, a surgical procedure that renders men impotent, in Assam’s Dibrugarh district. He was influenced by an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) a paramedical volunteer hired on contract by the health ministry.
Police have arrested the activist, Pomila Barua, on Friday after the victim, Ankur Deka (name changed), filed an FIR with the police against her and gave his statement to a magistrate. A court sent the accused to judicial custody. The incident was reported from the government-run health centre at Tingkhong in Dibrugarh district on December 3.
The state health department has ordered an inquiry.
The victim was told he would be administered an injection that would make him impotent for five years, according to the complaint. Under a health department scheme, an ASHA volunteer gets Rs 200 for every person undergoing vasectomy on her advice, while the patient gets Rs 2,000. The locals alleged the accused was demanding “commissions” from the patients.
Locals said eight people, including the victim and his married uncle of Dhoapathar village, turned up at the health centre. While seven of them underwent the surgery, the eighth fled after he developed a cold feet at the last minute.
Assam’s commissioner and secretary of health and family welfare department, Samir Kumar Sinha, told The New Indian Express that the victim had actually accompanied his uncle to the camp, but underwent the surgery when his uncle stepped out to have tea.
Enraged that a youth’s future has been nipped in the bud, the Tai Ahom Jatiya Parishad has demanded the state government give a compensation of Rs 10 crore to the victim. Its general secretary, Amarjyoti Arandhara, said the victim was in shock.
“He (the victim) studied only up to Class IV and belongs to a poor family. His greed for money due to poverty and his conviction that he would regain potency after five years made him register his name for vasectomy by faking his marital status,” Arandhara said.
“He is traumatised after having learnt his mistake. He is in need of urgent medical attention but help is not forthcoming, either from the health department or the district administration,” Arandhara alleged.
Big Blunder
Under a scheme of Assam’s health department, an ASHA volunteer gets Rs 200 for every person undergoing vasectomy on his or her advice, while the patient gets Rs 2,000. The young man had actually accompanied his uncle to the vasectomy camp, but got administered the sterility vaccine for himself when his uncle stepped out to have tea.