In Mohammadpur slum just outside Gurgaon, where I was visiting Swasti’s i4We primary healthcare intervention, when men are asked about the role they play in family planning, they often respond like Manoj does in the video above: that the decision is left to their wife, and is no business of theirs. The data from NFHS-4 corroborates this: 35% of urban and 38% rural men agreed that ‘contraception is women’s business and a man should not have to worry about it’. While India has had a successful family planning program in place since 1952, male participation remains an important gap in India’s family planning program.
Why is there so little involvement in family planning amongst men in India? There are various possible reasons, including ignorance or misconceptions concerning the multiple contraceptive methods available, misconceptions around male sterilisation, as well as a lack of incentives. However, norms around gender equality are perhaps the most crucial factor underlying the disinterest: An interesting study conducted in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 revealed a correlation between men’s attitudes regarding gender equality and their use of contraception: in urban settings, men with ‘moderate to high level’ gender-equal attitudes were likely to be users of modern methods of family planning, whereas in rural areas, the same group were more likely to be involved in traditional family planning methods than not to be involved at all.
