Accessibility and Use of Contraceptives in Rural India

Accessibility of contraceptives is a critical factor in determining the use of family planning. Regional differential in contraceptive access in India suggest for a better understanding and exploration of contraceptive method mix which might help program planners and increase use. Data from the District Level Household Survey Data 2007-08 on 4,73,768 currently married women belonging to 22,825 villages of India have been used to examine factors related to the accessibility of family planning services. The effects of individual- level and community-level factors were analyzed jointly.

The analysis measures access to health and family welfare services at village level, by a composite index. The results of the multivariate analysis indicate that not only access to public health facility have influence on utilization of family services after adjusting for the household-level and individual-level socioeconomic and demographic variables, there are some specific components of access e.g. presence of ANM (Auxiliary Nurse/Midwife), connectivity to all weather road, availability of pharmaceutical shops in village etc, have much higher effects on contraceptive use. Thus community resource and along with increased availability of contraceptive methods and information could increase use of family planning.