Unfolding the mystery of reliance on unreliable traditional ways of birth control

Reliance on unreliable traditional ways of birth control would always give psychological tension to a couple and debar them from leading healthy sexual life. However, in Assam, half of the total contraceptive users depend on traditional contraceptive methods. Thus, present paper attempts to find out the answer to this peculiarity by taking latest National Family Health Survey 2005-06 data. Bi-variate analyses show that most of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of traditional method users are in-between users of modern spacing and terminal methods. Traditional method users are 31 years old and married for 13 years. Traditional method use is higher among Muslim, Bengali and backward castes women, compared to their counter parts. The burden of miss-timed and unwanted fertility is highest among the traditional method users. Multi-variate statistics shows that women with lesser education, lesser marital duration, from poorer economic condition, and speakers of Assamese and Bengali language are less likely to rely on traditional method. Further, women with lesser marital duration, younger and urban women are less likely to adopt terminal method. There is an urgent need to impart proper knowledge about traditional as well as modern effective contraceptive methods for healthy reproductive life.