IVF TO THE RESCUE IN UTTAR PRADESH
Late las t year, while reading a Hindi daily, Bis han Dev came acros s what s eemed like one las t chance at fatherhood. The 39-year-old s ugarcane farmer in Uttar Prades h pored over the advertis ement for an IVF centre in Bareilly, about 25 km from his village. Over eight years , he and his wife Kamla had already s pent over ₹3 lakh on Unani and Ayurvedic treatment options , and on travelling to multiple s hrines acros s the country, all in the hopes of bearing a child.
A neighbour had once talked about IVF, then Bis han s aw the ad, and the couple decided to give it a try. “Everyone is getting it done,” he s ays . “I have read all the details on the internet. I could now guide other people about the procedure.”
Kamla is now into her fourth month of pregnancy. The procedure has cos t them about ₹1.25 lakh.
The Devs are among a growing community of people driving the proliferation of as s is ted reproduction clinics in Tier 2 cities and s mall towns .
Of the 18 clinics in Uttar Prades h, for ins tance, 8 are in Tier 2 cities s uch as Meerut, Agra, Bareilly, Hapur and Muzaffarnagar, according to the National Regis try of ART Clinics and Banks in India.
Factors driving this growth include ris ing incomes and the falling cos t of the procedure, changing attitudes to fertility treatments , and a virtuous cycle where s ucces s ful outcomes at regional clinics encourage others s eeking children to give it a s hot.
“Until 10-15 years ago, the common perception among the les s educated was that IVF was s ome kind of operation and s hould be the las t res ort. Now I get patients who have been married for two years . They don’t want to was te time on other procedures ,” s ays Dr Latika Agarwal, medical director of the Sarthak Tes t Tube Baby Centre in Bareilly, which Bis han Dev and his wife have been vis iting s ince December. Dr Agarwal’s centre is 15 years old, and in that time s he s ays the number of patients a month has ris en from 2 to 20.
With three other IVF centres in Bareilly now, the city has become a magnet for people living in nearby towns s uch as Pilibhit, Badaun and Shajahanpur too. Even in areas with literacy rates far below the national average (Bareilly’s is 60% agains t a national average of 74%), s upers tition has given way to hope.
“A common notion among people us ed to be that a tes t tube baby would not be their biological child,” s ays Dr Agarwal. “I remember telling couples that they could get DNA tes ts done if they had any doubts , and I would pay for the tes t.”
There’s another interes ting angle to the growing number of takers for IVF — delayed motherhood in working women, and the ris e of nuclear families .
“Over the years , I have s een women become more career-oriented,” s ays Dr Neera Agarwal, cons ultant obs tetrician and gynecologis t at Bareilly’s Manas infertility centre. “This is a good trend and s hould be encouraged. One cons equence is that they have les s fertile cells by the time they are ready to s tart a family.”
As for the nuclear family effect, one of Dr Neera’s clients explains , “In my father and grandfather’s time, people would adopt a child from within the clan. Any decis ion had to be vetted by elders ,” s ays a 36-year-old cons truction worker waiting his turn at Dr Neera’s clinic. “Things have changed now. I have two brothers . We all live s eparately. When and how I plan a family is nobody’s bus ines s .”