Three-fourths
of our population lives in rural India. Any measure employed to limit our population
growth rate of nearly 2% must be focussed on the rural masses. We analyzed the
responses of 122 women, attending a rural hospital in Ballabgarh (Haryana), recorded
on a pre-designed questionnaire for contraceptive awareness between June and September
1999. The interviewed women were young and in
their child-bearing age (18-41 years), and half (51.6%) of them were married before
19 years of age. Half (49.2%) of them were illiterate and nearly 43% had been
to school and could read and write. Of the
interviewed group, 96% women considered family planning essential. However, they
preferred to conceive soon after marriage due to social pressures, have two (41.8%)
or three (43.4%) children and then opt for sterilization. They (61%) voiced strong
desire for at least one male child. The women did not feel burdened bringing up
many young children and nearly 44% were averse to spacing. However, most were
inclined for 2-3 years of spacing. Awareness
of contraceptive methods was high among these women, sterilization (95%), IUD
(87.6%), oral pills (88.5%), condoms (83.6%), but their usage was very poor. Only
16 women had used IUD and 10 had used pills in the past. Only 13 women knew about
emergency contraception, while 2 had actually used it. However, 20 women said
they could have avoided an unplanned pregnancy with timely use of EC, another
22 expressed their desire to know about EC.
It is, therefore, apparent that illiteracy, early marriage, quick successive childbirths,
and preference for a permanent family planning method need to be addressed when
counselling rural women. There is an urgent need to remove social prejudices against
a girl child and educate women about spacing pregnancies. The couples should be
counselled to delay the birth of their first child and encouraged to use spacing
methods, because decision for sterilization often results in yet another unwanted
pregnancy. |
