So you probably rushed here thinking maybe in the next few days, you as a female Corper would be forced to conduct a pregnancy test or probably you are a Prospective Corp member and you are thinking maybe you will have to pass through the pregnancy test before mobilization.... THAT IS NOT TRUE....
Nobody will conduct a pregnancy test for anybody. Relax your mind and read on.
This article is about a case back in 2009, when each female corp members were forced to pass through a pregnancy test in Lagos NYSC camp..
Very funny but true. Am just here to bring a little bit of history. At least, you should know about the case. Really fun to read about it now but very stressful and scary back then....
so lets go to the point.... Below is the Protest letter and NYSC Response to the letter..... Enjoy history
This Protest letter was posted on Nairaland by Rhea on Dec 30, 2009
Who do we believe??
The Protest Letter
I write in protest against the events that took place at the Lagos-Ipaja NYSC Camp during the registration exercise on November 3, 2009. This year, the NYSC has decided to force pregnancy tests on all female corps members. It is my understanding that mandatory pregnancy tests were introduced last year and previous batches had been forced to undergo the tests under all manners of conditions. Having heard of previous batches doing 'press and check' pregnancy tests, and having listened to live accounts from members of this year's Batch A (Oyo camp), being forced to share as little as 20 test tubes between hundreds of girls where the tubes were 'disinfected' by being dipped in a shared bucket of water with a capful of diluted dettol, I imagined that by the time Batch C began their camp experience, the NYSC would have gotten their acts together and scrapped the test. However, the truth could not have been any more different.
Upon our arrival at the Ipaja camp in Lagos , my friends and I were separated from all male registrants and shepherded to the back of the main registration building. Many of us were confused and had no idea what to expect. We were soon informed, through a megaphone, that we were to have forced pregnancy tests. After forming a line that stretched around the building, we girls tried to locate where the clinic where they would conduct the test was located. All we saw were two men and two women seated at a table and a nearby curtain rod. Two mattresses had been placed over the rod in a corner of the grassy patch behind the registration table. This makeshift 'room' with only one 'wall', was where we would be forced to undergo pregnancy tests.
When asked why we had to have pregnancy tests instead of proceeding with registration along with our male counterparts, we were told that it was to weed out the 'liars' amongst us. The NYSC officials present informed us that every year, they have girls who try to gain exemption from the camp experience by claiming they are pregnant. They stated that the girls usually claim not to be pregnant when registering during the first few days of the orientation camp, only to 'spring' a pregnancy up as an excuse once the strenuous exercises of the camp begins. As such, they had deemed it necessary to force all females to undergo pregnancy tests.
Though we tried to dispute the logic behind such reasoning, we were told to keep quiet. We were then instructed to move in batches of three behind the mattresses, to grab a plastic bottle from a carton box, to remove our trousers and skirts and urinate into three 'holes' dug into the ground. Behind the mattresses stood three women who inspected us as we urinated into the plastic bottles. Once we were able to produce urine, they would then stick a pregnancy test 'stick' into the bottle and hand the stick to us. We were then to take these sticks and present it to the people seated at the table next to the 'testing area'. These people would then present us with a piece of paper declaring the results of our test. If you tested negative, you were allowed to proceed with registration. If you tested positive, you would be sent out of the camp.
While standing in line, the girls moved forward in groups of three. Any girl unable to urinate on demand, was immediately berated and humiliated and shoved out of the testing area to stand in a corner. We were not provided with any water or drinks and girls who had nothing in their stomachs had to stand for hours until their bodies produced urine. Those girls who had some money were told to buy water for themselves. Many girls, despite drinking up to four large bottles of water were still unable to urinate. This was no doubt due to the psychological pressure of being herded like cows and insulted with each attempt. Every time girls went behind the mattresses, the women would deride those of us who could not urinate in loud voices. "ARE YOU STUPID? They would ask. WHY CAN"T YOU URINATE? COME ON GET OUT IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO PISS! YOU WILL NOT REGISTER TODAY!"
The pressure to urinate, coupled with the threats coming from the women 'supervisors' led to some breakdowns. One friend, in sobs, called home. She had drunk water to the point of having a distended stomach, yet every time she saw the maggot filled hole where we were to urinate could not produce any urine. After four hours of standing in the sun, and ten attempts, she was finally able to produce a small amount.
The girls who were able to urinate easily, still faced difficulties. As quite a number of the pregnancy sticks were faulty and read in error, showing neither the tell-tale pink or blue colours. Some girls, after waiting for hours to produce urine, were told to return to the line to urinate again when their tests did not read clearly. Any girl who protested at was disqualified from registering that day.
Given our physical makeup, girls are not able to aim easily into plastic bottles. As a result of our inability to aim their urine, many girls urinated onto their arms, bodies and clothes by accident. The majority of girls had urine-drenched hands resulting from their attempts to force the urine into the bottles. Despite the fact that their hands and arms were covered with urine, the girls were not allowed to wash their hands. Instead they were forced to sign a register with their name, state of origin, telephone number and NYSC number as the urine dripped onto the registration book. Subsequent girls had to handle the same pen and book clumsily as they balanced their bottles of urine and pregnancy test sticks in their hand as the supervisors screamed that "ANY GIRL CAUGHT WASHING HER HANDS BEFORE SIGNING WOULD BE SENT OUT OF THE CAMP."
In my frustration, I asked one of the supervisors if she had been forced to take such a test when she served in the NYSC. "Of course not", she replied "But you girls of today are liars. We cannot trust you so we must force you." I asked the official, "Why not just test the girls who claim they are pregnant?" Another girl suggested that the NYSC camp should simply assign a clinic within each state where the tests could be conducted under sterile and clean conditions. Each suggestion was met with insults, as we were asked if we knew better than the NYSC. They insisted that as we are all liars we should be treated as such.
read on below..
http://www.corpersforum.com/nysc-news-updates/nysc-mandatory-female-pregnancy-test-the-truth-and-the-ugly-revealed!/
