Jihad to popularize birth control among Assam’s Muslims

Guwahati: Any talk of birth control had once been taboo for Muslims, particularly the uneducated Muslims living in remote areas of Assam. This has changed, thanks largely to Ilias Ali, a professor of surgery at the Gauhati Medical College & Hospital, who had launched a kind of 'jihad' (holy war) against the misconceptions about birth control and has thus far carried out a staggering 48,000 vasectomies on Muslim males.

Now, Muslim males with two or more children are voluntarily coming out in large numbers to get sterilized and help control the population.

"Muslims, particularly the uneducated ones, are opposed to birth control. It is not only in Assam but in many other parts of India as well. They believe children are the blessings of Allah and all births take place as per his wish. They consider it a sin to go against the wishes of Allah," Ali, who conducted his first No Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV), also known as 'keyhole vasectomy' in Assam in 2008, said.

"NSV is one of the most popular techniques to conduct vasectomy through a single puncture in the scrotum and which requires no suturing or stitches. It causes less pain and fewer post-operative complications.

Ali went to China for being trained in NSV by Li Shunqiang, who had invented the procedure in the mid-1970s. However, it was introduced in India only in the mid-1990s.

"I have realized that there is ignorance among the people, particularly among the uneducated Muslims over this. The Holy Quran has been misinterpreted by some and the people have taken it to be true due to their being illiterate," he said while explaining that, in fact, Islam is perhaps the only religion which talks of family limitation methods.

"There is a mention about 'azol' in the Holy Book, which means coitus interruptus (ejaculation outside vagina). During the time of Prophet, some of his companions tried to reduce the chances of conception and pregnancy by practising azol. The Prophet was aware of this," Ali said, explaining that this method became widespread during the Prophet's lifetime.

"I have been using this and other references from the Holy Book to explain to the people that birth control is not against Islam," he said.

One of Assam's best-known surgeons, Ali said that he also often refers to Chapter 46, Verse 15 of the Quran which says "Wa hamluhu wa fisaluhu salasuna sahran", which means there should be a gap of 30 months between a child's birth and his or her weaning.