Awareness of family planning and contraceptive methods has seen an increase, according to NFHS-5. The awareness of modern contraceptive methods is widespread, with 97% of women and 97.5% of men knowing at least one modern method. Still, the burden of this responsibility mostly falls on women, with female sterilisations being the most common form of contraception. Tubectomies (surgical procedure for female sterilisation) are performed about 10 times more than vasectomies (surgical procedure for male sterilisation). This can be tied to the fact that over one-third of men believe that women should handle contraception. The unmet need for family planning methods by women has decreased from 13% in NFHS-4 to 9% in NFHS-5. But the data also shows that 24% of women don’t find family planning necessary. Further, the knowledge of contraception is not fully bridging the gap in women’s family planning need - a trend seen across States
Knowing your options
The chart shows the awareness of select contraception among men and women in India. Both genders are knowledgeable about female sterilisation and condoms with more than 85% of them being aware of the two
