Prayagraj: While World Population Day was observed on Saturday, the day brought the spotlight once again on the need for shared responsibility in family planning. However, health department data from Prayagraj, Pratapgarh and Kaushambi reveal that women continue to shoulder the burden of permanent family planning methods, while male participation remains negligible.According to officials of the department, family planning programmes can become more effective only when men actively adopt contraceptive measures. Despite sustained awareness campaigns, female sterilisation continues to outnumber male sterilisation across all three districts.According to district programme officer Vinod Singh, between 2023 and 2025, as many as 38,268 women underwent sterilisation in Prayagraj compared to 910 men, meaning women opted for the procedure nearly 42 times more than men. The disparity is even wider in Pratapgarh, where 10,413 women and just 109 men underwent sterilisation during the same period. In Kaushambi, 9,792 women opted for sterilisation against 282 men, with women accounting for nearly 35 times more procedures than men.The use of temporary family planning methods has, however, shown encouraging growth. The Antara injectable contraceptive, administered once every three months, has witnessed a steady rise in adoption in Prayagraj. The number of beneficiaries increased from 39,431 in 2023 to 52,503 in 2024 and further to 64,970 in 2025. During the same period, 70,355 women opted for post-partum Copper-T insertion within 48 hours of delivery, while 6,69,250 women used the monthly oral contraceptive Mala-N and 4,40,625 women used the weekly contraceptive pill Chhaya.Over the last three years, Prayagraj recorded 314 male sterilisations in 2023-24, 343 in 2024-25 and 253 in 2025-26, while female sterilisations stood at 14,146, 12,690 and 11,432 respectively
