Jamshedpur, March 19: Health officials are targeting men from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to sterilise them, even though their wives have undergone the process, to meet annual targets set by the health department.

The move goes against the rules set by family planning, which requires one member of the couple to be sterilised.

Senior officials in the health department said the ministry was putting pressure to increase the sterilisation rate after they failed to achieve their target for female sterilisation last year.

This has led to state-sponsored male sterilisation camps in East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Bokaro and Hazaribagh.

?The pressure from the top to increase the sterilisation rate is so intense that middlemen in conjunction with health workers are persuading poor men to accept non scalpel vasectomy (NSV) for Rs 250, even though their wives have already been sterilised,? said sources.

Officials in the health department said the state had failed to achieve 30 per cent of the sterilisation target.

He was, however, doubtful that NSV would be a success. ?Keeping in mind the poor response from women, we decided to introduce NSV this year so that the family planning scene is improved. But the response is very poor. We started with a small target of just 5,000 but by end of February, we have been able to attract only 1,500 males to accept NSV,? he added.

Civil surgeons of different states blamed illiteracy and religious taboos. Others, including West Singhbhum civil surgeon (CS) B.K. Mundari and his Jamtara counterpart M.A. Sattar added that poor infrastructure was the reason. In Dumka only 2,168 females were sterilised against a target of 6,702. East Singhbhum, where more than 5,000 women have been sterilised as against the target of 7,000, expect to do better from next time as the government has sanctioned purchase of two machines for laproscopic surgery.

Deputy director Alvina Sheetal was optimistic about improvement in numbers. ?The government is doing everything possible to improve infrastructure as well as spread awareness, ? he said .