why are motivated women in India not using contraception? Subjective cost of contraception among currently married women in India

Richard A. Easterlin in his famous article “An Economic Framework for Fertility Analysis” in 1975, it was well established that motivation is not “sufficient condition” of fertility and there are cost involved in fertility regulation. One type of cost is subjective cost which he defined as “displeasure associated with the idea or practice of fertility control”.

The area selected for study is Bihar. Total fertility rate (TFR) of Bihar is constantly very high and at the same time there are wide discrepancy between fertility preferences and actual number of children born. Motivation comes from “excess Supply” situation, unwanted births brings the motivation to regulate fertility. However in Bihar, according to NFHS III, unmet need for contraceptive is 23.1% -highest among all Indian States.

Those women who don’t want a child at all or want them after 2+ years are considered as motivated. Sample consists of currently married women in Bihar who are motivated but are not using any method of contraception. The purpose is to study future intention to use contraception among these women to find out how subjective costs of contraception play role. A set of dependent variables are taken and logistics regression is performed. Effect of mass media is also studied.