By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: For Doctor Ilias Ali, it was a major step taken in the right direction as he addressed the second awareness meeting on family planning in Assam’s Hailakandi.
Dr Ali is the professor of surgery and HOD of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Centre of Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) who has been instrumental in spreading the message of family planning especially among the Muslims in the remote areas of the state for the last several years.
“It’s satisfying that the people especially the Muslims have responded positively this year, compared to the last year. Last year when I had visited the place it was a bit troublesome to make the people understand,” Ali told TwoCircles.net after the programme on April 2.
Dr Ali has also been the state Nodal Officer of No Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) since 2009 in Assam.
He said that there are still miles to travel in this field to attain the complete success. “There are still some hindrances in the society which try to mislead the common people in the name of religion. I always advocate that Islam is never against family planning,” he added.
Dr Ali said that after the meeting he conducted a workshop of NSV Hailakandi Civil Hospital where four Muslim youths came forward to take part. “This is a changing scenario among the Muslims,” he said.
This is important in other aspects as well, as Hailakandi records the highest population growth in the state and the district has also the highest fertility rate among the women.
But the state scenario is very poor. Though Dr Ali has been doing a great job in spreading the awareness of family planning and birth control among the uneducated backward people in the state, there is lack of man power and infrastructure.