Female sterilization in India: A comparison of static and mobile services delivery

Sterilization is the most popular method of contraception in India. As the demand for sterilization services remains very high with a large unmet need, the country has continued with the camp mode (mobile clinic) to reach the people in under-served and under-reached areas (MoHFW, 2008). The paper compares the types of service delivery for female sterilization in India by their socio-economic characteristics and by the awareness of alternative contraceptive methods. At the same time, the study also tries to see differentials in static and mobile service delivery facilities. The present study uses the third round of DLHS (2007-08). In the DLHS-III, 1,156,932 ever married women in the age group 15-49 have been interviewed. To analyse the data, bi-variate analysis have been performed to compare static and mobile service facilities. At the same time, logistic regression analysis has been performed to look into the factors responsible for different service deliveries. The result shows that mobile facility is more effective in rural areas. The result also depicts that Muslims compared to Hindus; urban resident compared to rural resident; and women having higher education compared to no education are statistically significant and less likely to use female sterilization.