The fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has found there has been a paradigm shift in family planning methods in Maharashtra with men showing more willingness to take onus of birth control.
According to the report, the use of condoms rose to 10.2% from 7.1% in the last four years. The increase has been more in urban areas, as compared to the fourth edition of the same survey from four years ago. On the contrary, the use of contraceptive pills among women has shown a decline by nearly 1% from 2.4% four years ago to 1.8% now. Not just contraceptive pills, overall female sterilisation has also gone down to 49.1%.
Based on data by Mumbai Mirror, condom use has doubled in Mumbai but birth control continues to be the woman's responsibility. However, while female sterilisation continues to remain the most common method, there has been an increase in use of condoms. In Mumbai, seven out of ten married couples lean towards family planning methods. In five years, the use of condoms among men has increased from 11.7% to 18.1%.
In the suburbs, the use of condoms has doubled since the last survey was conducted. It has gone up from 8.9% to 18%. Experts told Mumbai Mirror that in urban areas, lesser women are inclined towards contraceptive pills because of multiple side effects.
Overall, there has been an increase in use of modern contraceptive methods across 17 states, according to the NFHS report.
The NFHS report has also shed light on other factors, like alcohol and tobacco consumption. The report shows that Bihar, a state where the Prohibition order is in place, consumes more alcohol than Maharashtra.
The report found that while 14 percent of men in urban areas consume alcohol, 15.8 percent of their rural counterparts did the same. Tobacco consumption too showed interesting results with the areas of north-east featuring on top of the list.
The findings are part of the report that Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan released as the facts and key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition and others for 22 States/Union Territories (UTs) of the First Phase of the 2019-20 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) on Tuesday.
The NFHS-5 includes new focal areas such as expanded domains of child immunization, components of micro-nutrients to children, menstrual hygiene, frequency of alcohol and tobacco use, additional components of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), expanded age ranges for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all, aged 15 years and above.