Women's Use of Contraception in Rural India: a Village-level Study

This paper examines the determinants of contraceptive use among married women in four villages in rural West Bengal, India. It uses primary quantitative data obtained from a survey of 600 women and qualitative data derived from ethnographic methods. Bi- and multi-variate analyses demonstrate that the factors that most influence a woman's use of contraception include her age, the number of living sons she has, and her religious affiliation. The study also shows that the availability and quality of permanent village-based government health care affects the use of modern contraception. The use of temporary family planning methods is negligible in the area.