Use of contraception in India: Incongruence and differentials in reporting by the couples

Couples characteristics and their variations and implications is an area where there is a need for much focus and further research. Inter-spousal communication, though not a new dimension of fertility and family planning research has remained much less explored especially in the Indian context than any other correlates of contraceptive use and current fertility. Most of the demographic researches on fertility, reproductive health and contraception focus on females of particular age group who are in their reproductive period. Important demographic indicators like fertility, contraception and mortality are estimated on the basis of reporting of the eligible female respondents. This particular study makes an attempt in exploring the degree of mismatch and its spatial variation in reporting of the contraceptive use by the couples in India. The study analyses the concordance and discordance of the reporting of the contraceptive use as reported by the wife and by the husband separately by using information of 42185 couples. Multivariate analysis has been used to find the causal relationship between various socio-economic-demographic factors and the mismatch in reporting of the contraceptive use. In India , wife's reporting of current use of contraception (60 percent) is higher than as reported by the husband(52 percent