Meeting Unmet Need for Contraception: Validity Assessment and Designing New Strategy in Indian Context

Uma C. Saha, Xavier Institute of Development, Action and Studies (XIDAS)
Kalyan B. Saha, Regional Medical Research Centre for Tribals (ICMR), India
Tarun K. Roy, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The study is to understand the unmet need for contraception among the rural women of central India. The data from NFHS-I (1992-93) and resurvey of 744 ever married women examined after seven years to access the inconsistencies in behaviour w.r.t. intention among the women in unmet need. The estimated unmet need for contraception in NFHS-1 was 24 percent, which has reduced by 14 percent during resurvey. However, restricting the concept to nonuser of contraception and those who are at risk of unplanned pregnancy and do not intend to have further births hides the true extent of women’s need for family planning information and services in a high fertility zone. Thus need has been felt to redefine the concept in Indian context. The new estimates for unmet need are slightly elevated and give better picture of the latent demand for family planning and also fertility reduction than earlier measures.