Guwahati: A functioning Condom Corner at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) is enabling people to help themselves to free condoms without any monitoring, thus helping to remove embarrassment and social taboo attached to purchasing condoms.

Officials of GMCH said Condom Corner is the only such facility available at a government-run health facility. The corner dispenses government-made Nirodh condoms.

Opened more than a year ago by the department of gynaecology, it has two outlets - one at the ante-natal care unit and the other at the outpatient department (OPD) of the ante-natal care unit at the gynaecological department where scores of people turn up every day.

The outlets have been set up in the form of two letter boxes on the walls.

The venture has received a huge response as supervisors at the department have to refill the boxes within six hours every day.

"The main aim of setting up the facility is to reduce the social embarrassment and taboo attached in getting access to condoms. Till now I haven't heard of any state-run health facility where such a corner has been formed where people can pick up any number of condom packets without any hesitation. They don't have to ask anyone. Besides married couples, young people can also get access to condoms.

Through word of mouth, Condom Corner is gaining popularity," said Shobhasmita Borthakur, a gynaecologist (post-partum) and obstetrician (ante-natal care) at the gynaecology department at the GMCH.

The Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS) installed condom-vending machines at specific places in the city more than a decade ago. But the initiative was stopped some years ago.

The indicators of current use of family planning methods (currently married women aged 15-49 years) in NFHS 4 recorded only 2.7 per cent used condoms. Assam in 2017 recorded an increase in the number of people, along with pregnant women, detected with HIV as compared to that in 2016.