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December 8, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Vending free condoms, promoting safe sex

By Wu Huixin | December 8, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

PUBLIC health policies promoting safe sex are coming out in the open with the installation of vending machines dispensing free condoms on university campuses in Zhejiang Province.

“It is a good idea,” said Zhai Yue, a student at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. “It provides us with a safe, convenient method to get contraceptive devices. To some degree, it helps protect us.”

It wasn’t that many years ago in China when sex was taboo to discuss in public and sex outside of marriage was censured. Social mores have changed dramatically, and access to contraception devices is considered a deterrent to unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Coin-operated vending machines dispensing condoms have been making discreet appearances in residential complexes and some scenic areas of Hangzhou. On university campuses, their appearance is less circumspect.

The first machine was installed at Zhejiang University in March this year. Students 18 years and older can get free contraceptives by simply swiping their ID cards in the machine. To date, at least 10 universities in the province provide such machines, and government authorities plan to expand them to every campus by the end of next year.

“When I went to university in the early 1990s, boys and girls were too shy to hold hands in public,” said Li Chencheng, a civil servant. “Now, free condoms are available at the university. That’s really a big change!”

More than 1,000 contraceptive devices have been dispensed by the campus machine since it was installed. The university hospital responsible for its maintenance said it needs to be refilled every week.

Most students support the distribution of contraceptives on campus. But not all.

“I worry that the machine might encourage students to have sex,” said Xu Tianyi, a student of Zhejiang Gongshang University. “Students are not as mature or independent as married people and may not be able to cope with the responsibilities of such sexual behavior.”

A survey by the National Working Committee on Children and Women revealed that women between the ages of 15 and 24 account for 40 percent of unplanned pregnancies. Most didn’t have proper knowledge of contraception, the committee said.

“Our society is becoming more open, but many students lack knowledge about sex because it hasn’t been part of the traditional Chinese education system,” Zhai told Shanghai Daily. “But university students are adults, and they should understand that the campus condom machine is there to give us protection, not stimulation.”

The Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that there were 5,921 HIV-positive and AIDS victims in the city at the end of October. The number of infected university students was 28 percent higher than a year earlier. Most of them contracted the virus through unprotected sex.

“University students are naturally curious about sex,” said Yao Mengjia, a teacher at Tongji Zhejiang College. “The right way to deal with the situation is to provide them with proper direction, not try to restrain them. They are adults, so they have choices. The machine offers students a good choice instead of a negative spur.”

In recent years, sex education courses have been added to the curriculum of many senior schools and universities.

“Seminars are often held at our university to teach us how to use condoms and other contraceptive devices,” Zhai said.

“Debate competitions have been initiated to offer us a platform to express our thoughts about sex. A health guidance station here provides psychological assistance to those who suffer from sex-related problems.”

Hangzhou


 

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