Underreporting Of Induced Abortions: National And Regional Level Estimates For India

Abortion, in India is generally stigmatized and is thus subject to considerable underreporting. An attempt has therefore been made in this study to estimate the extent of these clandestine abortions by using Bongaart's model from the data on MTPs available from the National Family Health Survey for four major states of India viz., Punjab, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu as well as the country as a whole. The estimated value of Ca or index of induced abortion was found to be 0.918 for NFHS I and 0.929 for NFHS II. The findings show that the estimated number of abortions has declined during the six-year period i.e. from NFHS I to NFHS II. The underreported abortions have been found to be 5,59220 for NFHS I and 4,15489 for NFHS II. Out of every 100 officially reported abortions 92 are underreported in NFHS I and 81 in NFHS II.