MY STORY: Why I Started a Petition against a Ban on Emergency Contraceptive Pills in Tamil Nadu

Vaishnavi writes about the importance of easy accessibility to emergency contraceptive pills and the changes that occurred after she started a petition against the ban on their sales in Tamil Nadu.

I did not take my friends’ occasional rants about the unavailability of emergency contraceptive pills in Chennai seriously, until I set out to look for it myself. I learned that an over-the-counter, prescription free drug, which is available in some of the most regressive cities in India, is not available in the “safest city in India”.

Despite clear guidelines, Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) have remained mock banned in Tamil Nadu since 2005.

Source: Jhatkaa.org

The Guidelines for Administration of Emergency Contraceptive Pills by Health Care Providers, which were released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in November 2008, maintain that ECPs can be provided safely by a healthcare provider such as doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, paramedics, family welfare assistants, health assistants, and community-based health workers.

This September, almost two years after my failed attempt at buying ECPs, I revived the dialogue on the subject of the unofficial ban. Together with Jhatkaa, a Bangalore based organisation, I was able to gather wider attention to this issue through an online petition. After we had collected over 2,000 signatures supporting the petition to lift the ban on emergency contraceptive pills, we got in touch with S. Abdul Khader, Director of Drugs Control.

Emergency contraceptives have been a subject of intense debate for having become a matter of moral concern, rather than what it should be: a purely medical concern affecting sexually active women. After two months of email and telephonic exchanges, the Drug Control Director sent us the following response:

“A proposal has been submitted to Drug Consultative Committee, to include the Levonorgestrol 0.75/1.5mg Tablets in S.No. 15 of Schedule K of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, so that these Emergency Contraceptive Pills can be sold as over-the-counter drugs without the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner.”

Tamil Nadu Director of Drugs Control not only agreed to take action but also submitted a proposal asking the Drugs Technical Advisory Committee (DTAC) at the centre to reclassifying ECPs to make them available to women all across India without a prescription!

This proposal to increase the availability and accessibility of ECPs is now being considered by the Drugs Technical Advisory Committee (DTAC). The Drugs Controller General of India Dr. GN Singh and the DTAC are meeting in one month to discuss the proposal and make a decision. Dr. Singh himself acknowledged the proposal and promised to deliberate on it carefully before making a decision. He has also said: “The idea behind the proposal is to increase availability and accessibility of the medicine in remote areas and therefore, it is important to also keep ECPs “affordable””.

This would mean that an emergency contraceptive pill (Levonorgestrol 0.75/1.5mg) can be purchased at a drugstore by anybody of a legal age, without a prescription from a doctor. One can only speculate on the enormity of this news, considering just how many women go through unnecessary, painful (and often unaffordable) abortions, continue to get pregnant against their will, or worse, are forced to keep a child born out of rape. This step, after 10 years of the unofficial ban, is very significant. With this proposal, women across India might be able to exercise their reproductive rights, over the counter.

There is a lot of information online about the efficacy of ECPs, precautions to be taken and the side effects of the medicines. Providing women access to this information along with the medicines would put women in control of their choices without being infantilised. A moral ban on ECPs is merely a short-term fix for a larger problem of lack of sex and reproductive education in schools.

Here are some of the most important things to know before using an ECP:

Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr

• An emergency contraceptive pill (also known as the morning-after pill) is NOT an abortion pill. “The ‘morning-after pill’ should be used in emergencies only. It helps to prevent pregnancy if you have had unprotected sex or when your contraception has failed. You should not take it on a regular basis, as there are much better forms of contraception.” Dr Louisa Draper

• The ones that are consumed everyday are called ‘birth control pills.’ You may remember the advertisement of a shy woman on Doordarshan using ‘Mala D’ – the brand of oral contraceptive pill that is provided at a subsidized price under the Contraceptive Social Marketing Program of the government through HLFPPT (Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust).

• The most common side effects are nausea, vomit and menstrual abnormalities (your period may come earlier, later, with more or less blood than usual); more rare side effects are fatigue, breast tenderness, headache and abdominal pain. Here is a friendly FAQ.

It is heartening to observe that Dr. Singh understands the need for ECPs’ ‘moral free’ availability, and its impact on the lives of women all over India. This is of particular relevance in a country where morality holds high grounds, often sidestepping the autonomy women ought to have with their bodies. We are very appreciative of this move by the Director of Drug Control and the DTAC. We also cannot reiterate enough the importance of your support. You helped us convince the TN Director to take action after all these years; the verdict of DTAC will be made available after the meeting in January. Once again, we can sway this crucial decision and benefit women all over India with your signatures. Please do share the petition and let more people know about it.

You can sign the petition here.

(Written by Vaishnavi Sundar)

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