Follow-up household survey in Sitapur District

This follow-up household survey in Sitapur, India, was conducted with funding from USAID under the Population Council\u27s Asia and Near East Operations Research and Technical Assistance (ANE OR/TA) Project. The main objective of the study, as noted in this report, is to assess changes in the program indicators of family welfare activities, including some of the selected reproductive health indicators, from 1994–95 (before the method-specific targets were withdrawn) and 1997 (30 months after the targets were withdrawn). The study has the following immediate objectives: detect changes in family planning (FP) knowledge and use among currently married women in rural areas; detect changes in level of unmet need for spacing and limiting births; detect changes in use of health services by pregnant and postpartum women; identify the differential use of FP methods, antenatal and postnatal services, child immunization, and other reproductive health services; assess reproductive tract infections among ever-married women in rural areas; and assess the level of unwanted pregnancies, incidence of abortions, and post-abortion services

Unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion: Data from men and women in Rajasthan, India

This report is the result of a collaborative project between the Population Council and the Centre for Operations Research and Training, conducted as part of a Council program of research on unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion in Rajasthan, India. Designed as a complement to service-delivery activities being undertaken in Rajasthan by the Indian nongovernmental reproductive health service provider Parivar Seva Sanstha, the program of research aimed to provide a multifaceted picture of the on-the-ground realities related to unwanted pregnancy and abortion in six districts of Rajasthan. Detailed pregnancy histories yielded data on levels of unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion in the sampled areas in Rajasthan. As noted in this report, the legal right to abortion is not a reality for the majority of women in the sample in Rajasthan. Women have strong desires to meet their reproductive intentions, but existing methods of family planning and abortion services are not meeting their needs. According to the report, public information campaigns to educate women, their spouses, and other family members about the legal right to abortion, as well as efforts to revise the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, are imperative if access to abortion services is to improve

Knowledge, attitude, and experience of marriage and sexuality among newly-married women in Gujarat, India: An exploratory study

This article, based on an exploratory study, assesses the sexuality, sexual, and reproductive behavior of young newly-married women and men in rural Gujarat, India. This article focuses on the women. A conceptual framework utilizing socioeconomic background, societal norms about sexuality, mass media exposure, husband-wife communication, and knowledge and attitude was developed to link to sexual behavior. The often colorful and vivid qualitative data suggest considerable premarital needs yet to be met by families or social welfare agencies. The findings confirm how poorly prepared both men and women are for dealing with sexual experience in their marriage and how this lack of preparation and understanding causes such social and behavioral problems such as physical coercion, anxiety, and unhappy marital unions