noida in the past year the number of men opting for a vasectomy had gone from 9 to 52 in bisrakh a small part of the gautam budh nagar district the increase in number may not seem much at first glance but when you compare it with other divisions of the district where it ranges between 25 the 52 men of bisrakh who have opted for sterilisation seem like a revolution the reason for the dramatic show is accessibility to more health centres in the region along with an outreach programme that the health officials said have worked wonderswomen too have responded to the twopronged approach in bisrakh whereas 201 women went in for a tubectomy in 2018 the number is 277 this year in bisrakh which is much more than other divisions like jewar84 dankaur186 or dadri208in total the gb nagar district saw an increase of 10 in sterilisation from 1264 of last year 201819 to 1385 this year 201920bisrakh has three health centres in close proximity to each other as compared to one health centre in other blocks of jewar dadri and dankuar the accessibility of more health centres that too within close quarters of each other along with extensive awareness and sensitisation programme carried out by dr shabeeh mazhar a female surgeon posted at the community health center chc in bhangel helped a great deal in getting these astounding results from bisrakh said deepti singh family planning expert from district health departmentdr mazhar has done about 52 sterilization of men in the last six months from bisrakh alone as compared to 5 each from dadri and dankaur and 2 each from jewar and district health quarters dhq taking the total number of vasectomies to 66 this year 201920 compared to 16 from last year 201819in case of sterilization the participation of men is very less as can be seen from the figures of past one year the main reason being misconceptions that despite all the awareness programs conducted by the government while educated men feel that after undergoing sterilization they will become physically weak and will have difficulty in forming a relationship the working class labourer fears loss of job and livelihood fearing health issues post sterilisation said dr mazhar who discounts both mythsthere is no weakness of any kind from sterilization men can function immediately after sterilization and this has been my main focus of awareness which helped bring forth more numbers especially men said dr mazharin total the gb nagar district saw an increase of 10 967 in sterilisation from 1264 of last year 201819 to 1385 this year 201920 where overall only 66 male sterilizations were done as against 1319 of women from april 2019 to october 31 this year clearly the dismal show of men visa vs women continue to stem from religious beliefs as well as gender stereotypes say health department officialsalso while 566 sterilisations highest were reported at dhq which caters to all private hospitals and clinics combined the best performing