NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian men may soon be able to buy condoms tailor-made to give a perfect fit.

Stung by the high failure rate of condoms, India`s Health Ministry has launched a project to study the size of male organs across the country and make condoms of different sizes instead of the single size presently available, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Saturday.

The project in seven centres around the country will use volunteers at hospitals and measure the length and width of their fully erect penises with a digital camera, the paper said.

"We are now developing a software that will translate pictures automatically into measurements of width and length," Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientist R.S. Sharma, who is in-charge of the project, told the newspaper.

Each of the seven centres will identify 300 volunteers, mostly relatives of patients admitted at hospitals, and start the delicate project in January, Sharma said.

The 1.1 million rupee (16,000 pound) project hopes to bring down the 15 to 20 percent failure rate of condoms due to breakage or spillage, said N.C. Saxena, head of reproductive biology at ICMR.

Sharma said condoms were currently made in a size specified by the World Health Organisation and the International Standards Organisation.

The ICMR officials said only three percent of Indians use condoms while 52 percent don`t use any contraceptive method.

Population growth in India -- the second largest country in the world after China with a population over one billion -- slowed during the last decade by 2.52 percentage points to 21.34 percent over the previous decade.

But the country, which has state-run condom firms, is keen to further slow down the rate of population growth.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

Answers

I wonder what the guarantee is? Money back????

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

Apparently post-WW2, with venereal disease running rife amongst Allied troops occupying Germany, the British army responded to a request from the Soviets for condoms. Only with the Cold War hotting up the Brits deliberately gave a huge batch of extra-extra-large figuring it would psych out the Soviet troops.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

Actually, I'd have thought that after a Bengalor Paal (sp) or Jalfrezi, contraception wouldn't be required at all.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

Speaking from the experienced background of working for the company that manufactures Durex - there are actually 2 sizes of condoms (they vary in diameter) depending on whether they are for sale in the Western world or in the Asian region. In addition to which Durex Comfort is shall we say a more roomier condom still!

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2001

This BBS is full of suprises. Can you imagine logging in here for the first time and finding out about condom diameters? Makes the mind boggle.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2001

Will they be available for a small deposit? Brings a new meaning to Johnny Foreigner, eh

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2001