Involvement of Men in Family Planning: Use of Contraception by Men in India

Rima Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Men often play the dominant roles in decisions crucial to reproductive health of women. However, family planning programs and policies often assume that men take minimal interest in matters that concern reproduction. The National Population Policy, 2000 of India underscores the need to facilitate increased participation of men in planned parenthood. It aims at popularizing male methods of contraception. This paper studies the involvement of men in family planning particularly the factors influencing male contraceptive use in two northern and two southern states of India. The study makes use of National Family Heath Survey II data (1998-99). Multivariate logistic regression results show spousal communication as the significant factor increasing the likelihood of using condoms in Kerala by 4.5 times and in Punjab and Bihar by 3.5 times. Younger and educated men are more likely to use condoms in the backward states. In case of sterilization there is not set pattern.