A. KUMAR, A. SINGH
Copyright © 2013 SciRe s . 163
later are generally probably more educated and know the risks
of early childbearing and try to avoid pregnancy. The women
from high standard of living category are generally more edu-
cated and aware about spacing and limiting methods available.
Since, they belong to rich families; money is not an obstacle in
seeking family planning services unlike poor women. Muslim
women are more likely to have unmet need. As discussed above,
religious prohibition is the major cause of such a high likeli-
hood of unmet need among Muslim women in Bihar. Apart
from that, Muslim women generally have lower autonomy.
Their poor socioeconomic conditions make them even more
vulnerable to not using contraception. Among women with one
living child, one hardly uses contraceptives for spacing or lim-
iting. Therefore, the strong odds for women with more than one
child should not come as a surprise. Previous studies have es-
tablished that women who are regularly exposed to electronic
mass media are less likely than other women to report method
related problems or opposition to use as their main reason for
not using family planning. However, in our study, it did not
appear to be significant when controlled for other predictor
variables.
One of the immediate objectives of the National Population
Policy of Government of India (NPP, 2000) was to meet the
unmet need of family planning. However, unmet need in the
states like Bihar is still very high. The Government of India and
particularly that of Bihar will have to take immediate steps to
address the causes of high unmet need for family planning
among women. As discussed above, the focus of policies and
programs should be on spacing methods. It is also imperative to
focus on disadvantaged groups such as Muslim, SCs, adoles-
cent and poor women. Since a great proportion of women indi-
cated that their partner opposed the use of contraception, males
(partner) should be involved in the counseling. It emerges from
the analysis that method-related reasons were also important in
shaping the decision to use or not use the contraceptives. Con-
sidering this fact, family planning program in Bihar should also
focus on eliminating misconceptions and fear about contracep-
tion through proper counseling of couples and information,
education and communication (IEC) activities in the commu-
nity, and try to improve the quality of advice and care services
related to family planning.
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