KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF CONTRACEPTIVE AMONG MARRIED MALES OF NORTHEAST STATES OF INDIA

Past family planning programs in India have been mainly directed toward women. However, because north eastern states remains a patriarchal society characterised by early age at marriage for women, men at present continue to determine familial fertility and contraceptive decisions. Consequently, the willingness of husbands to adopt or allow their spouses to use family planning practices will determine the pace of fertility reduction in north east states. Data from the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005-06 collected information from a nationally representative sample of 124,385 women age 15-49 and 74,369 men age 15-54 in 109,041 households provides key indicators of contraceptive prevalence, on currently married males (couples) in the age group 15 to 54, along with many other characteristics. Bivariate and multivariate statistical methods are used for analysing the cross linkage between the dependent and independent variables. The results suggest that there is high knowledge of contraceptives, a generally negative attitude towards limiting family size for economic reasons, and consequently low rates of contraceptive use. The trend in North-East states of India shows that the use of temporary method is more popular than sterilisation.