Lease of Life – Condoms

As a style statement a large number of youth in India embrace various reckless behaviors. One with an alarming increase is smoking Tabaco. While Indian Government has increased the taxes impaired on Tabaco and Tabaco related products, which make them more expensive to acquire, the move has not helped in reducing the use of the same.

While youth is okay to spend a cool Rs100 on a packet of cigarette what makes me wonder is why is there an apprehension on spending a mere Rs25 on a packet of Condoms?

With 1.2 billion people, India’s barely a nation that can afford to be lax about contraception but according to the health ministry, condom usage has dropped by 38%. To find out what exactly is causing this decline we need to take a look at some of these factors.

1.       Scarcity and Lack of Awareness

With a huge population like India, it is difficult to educate the entire society about safe sex. Therefore a large section of rural India remains aloof from the whole idea of using a condom not just as an contraceptive but also to avoid major STI’s. Non availability of free condoms and lack of awareness is major reason that is causing the dip in its usage.

2.       Morality

In every society, people have their own moral, religious and ethnic doctrines that have not only reinforced their social fabrics but, due to prolonged observance in the community, also have pervaded the psychosocial environment of the individual. Obviously, an intervention (condom use) altering their age-old natural reproductive practices may be opposed or rejected by the individual or the community though people deeply feel the need of resolving socio-economic constraints associated with the explosive growth of the population.

3.       Religion

With a country like India where we have a large bouquet of religions, they tend to interfere and influence the sexual practices that we follow. Many religions prescribe the use of condom as against the law of the creator. As these religious beliefs are strongly embedded in our mental system all the other hazards of not using a protective barrier while have sexual intercourse is forgotten and perhaps ignored.

4.       Social Stigma

This again is associated with lack of awareness and care for one’s health. Men find it awkward to walk up to a pharmacy to ask for a packet of condom. The uneasy look that the man behind the counter gives scares the sh*t out of the guy who probably is doing it for the first time. Social discouragement given once to this youngster, he will never walk up to that pharmacy again.

5.       Partner Characteristics

In our country polygamy is not a widespread culture. Heterosexual couples restrict to just a few partners as compared to the couples in the west. Therefore the comfort level that develops between the participating individuals that the need to use the protection dies eventually. Having blind trust on your partner can push someone down the hill inching towards any dangerous STI. Although with homosexual couples polygamy is rampant. Trust or no trust using a condom should be imperative.

6.       Personal Factors

Individual perception, notion and constraint is likely to influence condom use. Many youngsters report that non-use of a condom because they did not think either they or their partner had an infection, and a similar proportion did not use a condom because they applied other contraceptive measures. ‘I do not have the AIDS virus’ and ‘I thought I was safe’, apparently indicating their low perceived susceptibility behind avoidance of condom use. Thus, individual perception of risk or pleasure often affects condom use.

7.       Condom – As contraceptive

Many couples just consider condom as a contraceptive. Pregnancy is considered to be the only outcome of having sexual intercourse. So they refrain from using a condom as they find many other ways to avoid a possible chance of pregnancy. They forget that many other STI’s including HIV and AIDS can be avoided by using a condom.

8.       Psychological Factors

Severe depressive symptoms affecting adolescent males are significantly predictive in non-usage of condoms. Social anxiety among gay and bisexual youths is found to be associated with unprotected anal intercourse. A depressed mood, female gender and unemployment increased the likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex among young people.

9.       Substance Abuse

Acute alcohol consumption by college students significantly predicted their perceived likelihood that they would have sexual intercourse without a condom. A feeling of emotional closeness has often been reported to be associated with the consumption of the drug Ecstasy (methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine; MDMA); some have also mentioned an increased sexual arousal and some, in particular gay and bisexual men, have used MDMA specifically for sexual enhancement. The sexual risk taking behavior –having multiple sexual partners and engaging in sex without a condom- was prevalent among persons having sex during MDMA episode.

1.      Issues with Condom use

Many couples stay away from condom because of the discomfort they experience while using them. Lack of sensation, vaginal irritation, and condom slippage are some excuses. Finding the right condom for some people has been very difficult even when condom manufacturers have introduced many variants like flavors, dots and lubrications.

While there can be no reason to take risk with your own life, using a simple condom can just give you another lease of life.

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