Page 7 - IJPS-7-1

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Factors associated with fertility limiting

intention and contraceptive use among

currently married men in India

Bal Govind Chauhan , Ramu Rawat *, Noli Nivedita Tirkey ,
1
3
2
Satish Kumar Chauhan 4
1 Population Research Centre, Gokhale Institute of Political and Economics, Pune, India
2 International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, India
3 Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
4 Operation Research, IHAT-UPTSU, Lucknow, India

Abstract: Family planning methods are generally considered as women’s responsibility in India.
The volumes of research done so far in the family planning methods and reproductive behaviors
have kept women at the center of the matter. Consequently, the research on the men’s perspective
on the same is generally being neglected. The present study intends to address intention of
fertility stopping or fertility limiting and contraception behaviors and their associated factors
among currently married men aged 20-49 years in India who had at least one living child. The
fourth round of the National Family Health Survey in 2015-2016 was used to achieve the study
objectives. Descriptive statistics and binary and multinomial logistic regression models were
Received: September 5, 2020 applied to more than 48,000 men who met the requirement. The findings of the analysis indicate
Accepted: October 22, 2020
Published: October 29, 2020 that more than three-fourths currently married men did not want another child, and the fertility
stopping intention significantly varies by demographics (i.e., men’s age, number of children,
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR and sex composition of children), socio-economic characteristics, residence, geographic region,
Ramu Rawat and religion of the respondents together with type of caste and social media exposure. The
E-mail: ramu.iips@gmail.com men’s fertility stopping intention was also linked with geographic region, types of religion and
castes, and exposure of social media. Result further reveals that only <30% of men who did not
CITATION want to have another child were using a contraceptive method at the time survey. Among users,
female sterilization was the most popular method among married couples in India. Demographic
Chauhan BG, Rawat R, Tirkey
NN, et al. (2021). Factors factors, socio-economic characteristics, region and culture, and exposure of social media were
associated with fertility limiting all associated with use or not-using and use of a specific conceptive method. Overall, the findings
intention and contraceptive use suggest men’s fertility stopping intention and their use of contraception are complicated, and it
among currently married men in needs to consider men as a target group in fertility regulation interventions. The reproductive
India. International Journal of health programs aiming to increase uptake of modern contraceptives by sexually active men in
Population Studies, 7(1):1-22. India should consider the importance of sex education and ensure access to mass media.
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v7i1.1232.
Keywords: Fertility limitation intention; Contraceptive use; Male involvement;
Copyright: © 2021. Chauhan, Reproductive health; Family planning; India
et al. This is
an Open Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons The significance of the use of family planning methods is well documented, not only
Attribution-NonCommercial
4.0 International License having improved women and child health but also having added to related issues such
(http://creativecommons.org/ as gender equality, better child health, an improved response to HIV, greater education
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting outcomes, and poverty reduction to development agenda (Loaiza, Luchsinger, and Liang,
all noncommercial use, 2016). The higher utilization of contraception has been both an instrumental factor in the
distribution, and reproduction demographic transition and an indicator of changes in the attitudes and cultural patterns of
in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited. society as a whole (Bongaarts, Mauldin, and Phillips, 1990; Van de Kaa, 2001).

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