A rubber penis that health workers are using as part of a family planning kit to demonstrate how to put on a condom has sparked anger in rural India, where sex remains a taboo subject.
Some members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) have demanded that the kits be withdrawn and an apology offered to the health workers. One BJP state legislator, Chitra Kishor Wagh, said the Maharashtra government, which introduced the kit, “has lost its mind”. His colleague, Akash Bhundkar, wanted the government to apologise to the health workers for the “embarrassment” it had caused them.
One role of rural health workers is to educate villagers about family planning and contraception. To make it easier to explain the mechanics of it, 25,000 new kits have been distributed in Maharashtra containing a rubber penis and a uterus, to replace the earlier booklets.
The uterus has evoked no reaction but the penis has become a lightning rod for criticism, where such overt symbols are shocking to rural Indians.
Dr Archana Patil, director of Maharashtra’s public health department, told local media that such aids were important for health workers to be able to get the message across.
However, the health workers themselves are from the same rural background and may feel acutely uncomfortable using the prop, leading some family planning experts to wonder if the effort might backfire.
Poonam Muttreja, director of the Population Foundation of India, said the reaction to the phallus would simply strengthen the voices of traditionalists who oppose sex education in villages and schools.
“This is highly culturally insensitive and inappropriate. It puts the health workers in a very awkward position. This happened two decades ago when an international agency produced very explicit material for sex education. There is plenty of culturally appropriate material in use that is more effective,” she said.
India’s top sex therapist, Dr Mahinder Watsa, who died in 2020, used to say that many of his patients were couples who sought his help over their inability to conceive. A brief chat used to reveal that ignorance of human anatomy meant they were not doing it the right way.
