Condoms distributed to Bihar migrant workers returning home after quarantine

The Bihar Health department is distributing condoms and contraceptives along with conducting counseling sessions to migrant workers returning to their homes after completing the course of their institutional quarantine and home quarantine for 14 days. An official said that around 8.77 lakh people have been discharged from the 14-day quarantine out of the 28 to 29 lakh migrants who had come back to the state from various parts of the country due to the lockdown. Another 5.30 lakh migrants are said to be living at various block and district-level quarantine centres in the state.

The official in charge of Family Planning in the State Health Society has stated that this was purely a measure to keep the people informed on the importance of family planning and has got nothing to do with COVID-19. He said, "As a health professional, it is our responsibility to control the population. We have been taking the support of our health partner Care India to implement the initiative,". The state health department has taken the initiative to keep a check on unwanted pregnancies considering many such cases are being reported across the world and will continue till the quarantine centres are closed, which is expected to be by around June 15.

Health officials are distributing migrant labourers with two condom packets while Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers have been providing them by going door-to-door when people in home quarantine are screened. An official on behalf of the NGO, Care India, issued a statement as well saying, "We are providing technical support to the Health department in this initiative,".