The Man Who Promoted "Vulgarity"

During the zillionth video-call with my grandmother ( Jiji) in this Corona-Hijacked year 2020-21, after the routine talk of "what's for lunch?" and "how many Covid cases nearby?", our talks turned towards Shri Raghunath Karve, the son of Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve, after whom the famous Karve Road in Pune is named. 

Jiji said that Shri Raghunath Karve was the first person  to advocate birth control, family planning and sex education in India. This may seem like 'no big deal' to our generation, who knowingly or unknowingly has access to this information, as even the question ' Describe the various methods of birth control.' is one of the most frequently asked question in the CBSE Science Board Examination! 

But people, we are talking of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when just thinking about one's sexual life was shameful, perverse and equivalent to a 'Paap', let alone talking and spreading awareness about it. This was the time, when eight-year old girls were married off to sixty-year old men, twelve-year old girls ended up being pregnant, widows were molested even by their family members and married women had to compulsarily undertake the duty of motherhood, whether they liked it or not. This led to increase in suicides among pregnant rape-victims and deteriorating mental and physical well-being of women. The increased birth rates, coupled with decreased death rates, meant humungous rise in population, lowering the standard of living of people. Frustration levels among men rised too, as they were obliged to earn for  an ever-expanding family. 

Recognising these problems as a threat to Indian society, Shri Raghunath Karve, with support from his wife Maltibai Karve, began sensitizing people about birth control, consulting women and men who would secretly come to their house covered in a veil, in fear that someone would see them seeking advice. In 1921, Shri Raghunath Karve established India's first birth control clinic in Mumbai, the same year when first birth control clinics were set up in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He also designed a handmade condom to be used easily and effectively in households. All these activities, including writing books and columns on female sexual rights, sexually transmitted diseases and infections and protection of sex-workers from unwanted pregnancies and diseases did not fail to draw flak from the conservative Indian society. Stones and eggs were hurled at Shri Raghunath Karve and and his wife, he was forced to resign from his well-respected job of a Mathematics professor and three court cases were slapped on him for promoting "vulgarity".  Still, he stood strong and continued his relentless efforts to free women from unwanted pregnancies and men from unwanted burden of sustaining a large family. 

Now, what is worth noticing is that a hundred years after this birth control movement, we are still a sexually depressed society and sex is a taboo in many parts of our country. Though urban India is pretty much aware about birth control and is sensitive towards family planning, the situation is dark in majority of rural areas, as the general notion is, " बच्चे भगवान का दिया वरदान है , so how can we deny God's gifts?" Sadly, 74% of our rural population does not use any contraceptive device and nearly 30-35 million Indians suffer from Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections. The questions Shri Raghunath Karve raised more than a century ago, of female consent, sexual rights and family planning are relevant even today as nearly 1.1 billion reproductively active women of the world, out of the total 1.9 billion, are in  a major need of family planning. In many countries of the Middle East, husband's permission is required for a woman even to buy contraceptives. 

Many would say ki "क्या history झाड़ रही है इस post में Radha ",  but is it not our duty as fellow Indians to know about our own Superheroes? There have been many such social reformers in our country, who find no mention in our history textbooks, yet their contributions towards the society are beyond compare. It is upon us to get to know about them and their work, draw inspiration from it, and apply it to bring about the change we want to see around us today. Time to say "Khela Hobe!" for this, isn't it?  

Thank you so much for reading this post. I'll be glad to know your take on it!(please write your name along with your feedback) We'll meet again soon with a next post.

Bbye 

Until next time