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Fertility limiting intention and contraceptive use among Indian men

By contrast, we found that jobless men were less like to wish to stop having more children and were less likely to use
a contraceptive method. This finding is similar to the one for men of the poorest, which is also consistent with previous
studies (Ochako, Temmerman, Mbondo, et al., 2017; Chauhan and Nagarajan, 2019). Jobless men and the poorest men are
in the bottom of social class and are the most vulnerable groups. They have limited resources to access family planning
services. More social efforts and interventions are needed to promote family planning programs among these socially
vulnerable populations. Compared to men in manufactural sectors, men in other sectors (including jobless men) are more
likely to use modern methods instead of traditional methods. Men working in professional and skilled non-manual sector
come mostly from the middle social class and are inclined to start childbearing relatively later than their counterparts,
have small family size in a short period of time, and then limit fertility by choosing effective modern methods, particularly
sterilization (Padmadas, Hutter, and Willekens, 2004).
Men from rural areas were more likely not to wish to have more children and were less likely to use a contraceptive
method; and men in rural areas were more likely use female sterilization instead of traditional methods and less likely use
modern methods of contraception than traditional methods compared to men in urban area (see Appendix). The findings
are expected because of rigorous implementations of family planning programs in rural areas than urban areas through
front line health workers and lower availability of suitable and socially accepted basket of choice of modern method of
contraceptive.
One interesting finding is the large geographic variation in fertility stopping intention and the use of contraceptive
methods. Men in Central, Eastern, and Northeastern India who did not want another child were less likely to stop having
any additional child than their counterparts in Northern India and the former was also less likely to use modern methods
and female sterilization relative to traditional methods than the latter. By contrast, men in Western and Southern regions
were more likely to not wish to have more children, although such higher odds of wishing to terminate their childbearing
were not significant when religious or cultural factors were controlled for. We further found that compared to men in
Northern India, men in all other regions were less likely to use any of contraceptive methods than their counterparts, and
that men in Central, Eastern, and Northeastern were less likely to use modern and female sterilization methods whereas
men in Western and Southern India were more likely to use female sterilization relative to additional methods. The physical
access to reproductive health services is generally poor in northern and eastern regions (Singh, Pallikadavath, Ram, et al.,
2012). Further, earlier studies demonstrated that Southern States have implemented the family planning programs in most
effective manner than other parts of the country (Rajna, Kulkarni and Thenmozhi, 2005), which could explain the higher
likelihood of use of female sterilization. However, more studies are needed to focus on age-specific or cohort-specific
analyses with integration of other factors that are associated with fertility intention and use of contraceptive methods to
further explore regional differences over time.
Although the proportion of men who did not want one more child was higher among Muslims (27.5%) and other
religions or no religion (21.3%) compared to that of men of Hindu (20.7%), men of Muslims and men of other religions or no
religion had much lower odds to stop having another child when all conditions were equal. Men of Muslim were associated
with lower use of contraception, and especially the female sterilization method. These indicate that the demographic or
socio-economic composition among different religions is large, and that the family planning practice among Muslims
religion is relatively low (De Oliveira, Dias and Padmadas, 2014). The use of family planning methods is lower and unmet
need for family planning is higher among Muslims and they have low access to services from government sources in
rural areas, as Muslims belonging in low literacy and poor socio-economic condition (Bhagat and Praharaj, 2005; Ghosh,
2018). Compared to men in other religions or no religion, men of Hindu were less than to use a contraceptive method,
indicating that religion still play a certain role in influencing people’s family planning behaviors (De Oliveira, Dias and
Padmadas, 2014). Our finding that men belonging to different religious groups use different contraceptive methods is line
with the existing literature. For example, female sterilization was reported to be lowest among the Muslims compared
to other religious groups. The fertility behavior and family planning use are very sensitive issue from the religious point
of view because it is influenced by deeply rooted socio-cultural values and belief system. Moreover, in some of the
communities use of family planning is considered as sinful (Iyer, 2002; Muttreja and Singh, 2018).
Men in SCs/STs and OBCs were associated with lower odds of wishing not to have one more child and less likely to
use a contraceptive method compared to men in other groups, although they were more likely to use female sterilization.
These findings are consistent with previous studies (De Oliveira, Dias, and Padmadas, 2014). Men from SCs/STs and
OBCs are more likely to use female sterilization, this might be because of these group have less or no information related
to family planning methods than other caste groups; also public health workers tend to be biased in favor of the wealthier
and socially advantage groups to provide the information of health-care services utilization (Singh, Pallikadavath, Ram,
et al., 2012). Further, in India caste can be consider as a proxy of economic status of the household, therefore, financial

14 International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1