Women wait outside the operation theatre of a community health centre in Bahadurganj subdivision of Kishanganj district, Bihar, India, March 21, 2023. India’s fertility rate fell to 2.0 in 2019-21, but State health officials estimate Kishanganj’s fertility rate at 4.8 or 4.9, creating a population growth problem that the state is trying to curb with the distribution of condoms and birth control pills, as well as paying 3,000 Indian rupees ($36.50) to women who get sterilised, 4,000 rupees to men, and 500 rupees per surgery to the health workers who perform them. “The state government’s focus is to ensure that policy interventions percolate to the ground, its mechanisms such as free sterilisation, temporary birth control instruments are used actively,” said Sanjay Kumar Pansari, director in the Bihar government’s Directorate of Economics and Statistics. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis
