Happy Dampatti, or Happy Couples, is a hit reality show all about birth control.

It’s keeping thousands of slum-dwellers in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh glued to their TVs or radios, eager to hear their neighbours talk about their family planning decisions. The couples who use contraception in the most impressive ways win prizes like fridges – and gain role-model status in their community.

“We use a condom every time”, says Mamta Verma, a 26-year-old from a slum in Aligarh, a small city in the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. Wearing a red and blue sari and some gold jewellery, her head covered, the young woman looks confidently into the camera and adds, “We can control ourselves. We don’t get close to each other if there is no condom.”

Withdrawal
Mamta and her 27-year-old husband Kamal have one baby girl. They had two children before, who both died young. Now they want to delay the next child, until their daughter is five years old. Kamal, who earns the equivalent of about 65 euros a month with his own moulding business at home, backs his wife all the way.

“Withdrawal is wrong thinking. When one is excited, one is not able to withdraw. So if there is no condom, I will have to go to the shop,” he says with a smile.

Condoms on camera
Mamta and Kamal earned a home theatre set with their performance on the show. Mamta is proud of her ‘happy couple’ prize. “A lot of couples in our neighbourhood now ask us for advice on family planning,” she told Indian weekly Outlook.

Other couples also felt encouraged to speak out, after seeing other couples doing the same. “I was hesitant at first,” 25-year-old mother of three Kehkashan was quoted in Outlook. “How would I talk about condoms on camera? But when I saw so many other couples out there, also speaking on all this on camera, I let go and spoke freely.”

Sterilisation
Regular condom use is not the only topic that comes up in Happy Dampatti. Many couples that feel they have enough children have opted for sterilisation. In about 200 slums in Aligarh, now 2047 women and 310 men have been sterilised. Zafaruddin, a 27-year-old daily wage labourer and father of four, heard about sterilisation at the enrolment for Happy Dampatti.

The programme was set up by Urban Health Initiative, a group of NGOs, and the enrolment was combined with an awareness campaign and counselling on the spot.

“I learnt about sterilisation at a Happy Dampatti camp and I instantly got it done,” Zafaruddin said. “With rising prices, I can’t afford to have any more children. If only I had known about male sterilisation earlier!” Zafaruddin was one of the first men in his community to go for it, but many have followed after he emerged as one of the winners on Happy Dampatti.

Taboo subject
The show has given couples the confidence to stand up to pressure from family and friends. Puran and Vimlesh opted for female sterilisation after having two sons.

“With two children, we can give them a proper upbringing,” says Puran on the show. “I have a friend in Agra who chided me for having only two children. But I convinced him that two children are the best. Now he has discussed it with his wife and they accepted sterilisation after two children.”

The confidence is clear in the face of Sarita, a mother of three. She is taking injectable contraception, which is available free of charge at the hospital. She wears a simple blue and orange sari and smiles straight at the camera, even when she discusses details about her menstruation – quite a taboo subject in these conservative communities, where a woman is often still considered unclean during her period.

Better future
Her husband Satish, an auto rickshaw driver, supports the family planning. “We are a poor family and it is difficult to raise a family on a meagre income,” he says. “Many drivers from my auto stand have asked me about having more children. I always tell them about contraception.”

Happy Dampatti is slowly convincing its viewers that with fewer children, you can provide a better future for them. As Puran sums up on camera: “Happy Dampatti means: ‘Small family, happy family’.”

By Aletta André
Illustration: Happy Dampatti logo, UHI-JHUCCP