Data | Burden of family planning falls on women in India, female sterilisation widely preferred Premium

Female sterilisation (tubectomy) is almost ten times higher than male sterilisation (vasectomy) in the country

A woman’s business: The responsibility of family planning and contraception falls on women in India

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

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Tied up

The chart shows the number of vasectomies and tubectomies performed in India between 2014 and 2019. Tubectomies performed every year are nearly 10 times higher than the vasectomies performed. (blue) indicates vasectomy (left axis) and (red) tubectomy (right axis). The scale is different for both the left and right axes

Still not enough

The chart shows the total demand for family planning among married women in India. Though the demand has increased from 66% in 2015-16 to 76% in 2019-21, almost 24% of women still do not deem family planning a necessity

State of unmet demand

The chart shows the share of demand for family planning among women in different States and the share of the demand unmet. While the demand for family planning is 76.1% in India, 9.4% of the demand is unmet

Source: NFHS, MOHFW