Family planning use among urban poor women in Uttar Pradesh, India

Effective family planning has widespread positive ramifications for population health and well-being; contraceptive use not only decreases unintended pregnancies and reduces infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, but it is critical to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. The Urban Reproductive Health Initiative is a multi-country program targeting the urban poor with the objective to improve contraceptive choice and increase access to high quality, voluntary family planning. The Initiative is being evaluated by the Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation (MLE) Project which is identifying the most cost-effective country-level approaches. At baseline (early 2010), representative data from six cities in Uttar Pradesh, India were collected as part of the MLE project. Data were collected from 3000 currently married women in each city (Allahabad, Agra, Varanasi, Aligarh, Gorakhpur, and Moradabad) for a total sample size of 18,000 women. Using pencil-and-paper, interviewer-led surveys, women were asked about their fertility desires, family planning use, and reproductive health. The survey over-sampled slum residents and also collected measures of consumption and assets; this information will be used to identify the urban poor and specifically examine their family planning use behaviors. The analysis will focus on family planning method mix among the urban poor (as compared to the urban non-poor); motivations to use family planning among the urban poor; unmet need for family planning; and reasons for non-use among those women with an unmet need. Based on the descriptive findings, recommendations for strategies to target the urban poor with a high unmet need will be provided.