{"id":4330,"date":"2019-09-11T18:57:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T13:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=4330"},"modified":"2019-09-11T18:57:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T13:27:57","slug":"social-and-cultural-barriers-in-family-planning-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/social-and-cultural-barriers-in-family-planning-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"SOCIAL AND CULTURAL BARRIERS IN FAMILY PLANNING IN INDIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Relevance: Sociology-II<\/strong><\/p>\n

Family planning in India <\/strong>is based on efforts largely sponsored by the Indian government. Over the years, contraceptive usage has more than tripled (from 13% of married women in 1970 to 48% in 2009) and the fertility rate has more than halved (from 5.7 in 1966 to 2.4 in 2012), but the national fertility rate is still high enough to cause long-term population growth.<\/p>\n

Awareness of contraception is near-universal among married women in India. However, the vast majority of married Indians reported significant problems in accessing a choice of contraceptive methods.<\/p>\n

In 2009, 48.3% of married women were estimated to use a contraceptive method, i.e. more than half of all married women did not. About three-fourths of these were using female sterilization, which is by far the most prevalent birth-control method in India. Condoms, at a mere 3% were the next most prevalent method. Meghalaya, at 20%, had the lowest usage of contraception among all Indian states. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were the other two states that reported usage below 30%<\/p>\n

Let us briefly analyze the socio-cultural barriers to the acceptance of family planning in India: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ideology of Hindu Marriage<\/strong>– India largely around 85% Hindu population. Law of Manu says \u2018marriages solemnized for \u2018pleasure\u2019 (Rati) but there are recognized to be \u2018asura vivah\u2019 and marriages for \u2018progeny (Santan) is divine\u2019. It this ideology that effectively divest women to accept family planning norms.<\/p>\n

Patriarchy <\/strong>also leads to \u2018Son Preference\u2019 that keeps woman reproducing till adequate numbers are reproducing. Madhu Kishwar studying \u2018Patriarchy in South Asia\u2019 confirms this social phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Pollution- Purity<\/strong>: Louis Dumont shows that \u2018women in Indian society were given permanent status of impure relatively to male.\u2019 Leela Dubey confirms its with her study of \u2018Seed and Soil\u2019. As she shows in her studies that \u2018woman redeem Pitra-rin (debt to ancestors) by bearing more and more sons.<\/p>\n

Gendered Roles <\/strong>\u2013 Men care-taker and women is child \u2013bearer and rearer so woman lose control on her reproductive health and adopt family planning measures.<\/p>\n

Caste <\/strong>plays a very important role in \u2018controlling sexuality\u2019 Leela Dubey in \u2018On the Construction of Gender: Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India\u2019 shows that women in lower caste were relatively more liberated than they are \u2018upper caste\u2019. Consequently it bars woman to access liberty of access to public space. Sanskritising Castes effectively controls \u2018sexuality of woman\u2019 imitating upper caste in name of \u2018Honor\u2019 as Nivedita Menon puts.<\/p>\n

Domesticity of Woman <\/strong>\u2013 Amartya Sen in The Missing Woman\u2019 beautifully presents how economic mobility reduces total population burden but raises \u2018selective reproduction through technology and controlling woman reproductive health\u2019 by confining woman to household activities and rearing child(son).<\/p>\n

Public Health systems- <\/strong>Feminist like Radhika Chopra, Nivedita Menon openly charge Indian State as \u201cPatriarchal\u2019 that is why it reproductive health policy ask for prior consent of males of household for any \u2018reproductive health provision\u2019.<\/p>\n

Physical access to resources: <\/strong>The influence of physical access on the utilization of family planning services is well-founded, with many studies demonstrating the greater use of services among women who live in relative proximity to a service.<\/p>\n

Woman\u2019s level of educational attainment<\/strong>: It is thought that increased educational attainment operates through a multitude of mechanisms in order to influence service use, including increasing female decision-making power, increasing awareness of health services, changing marriage patterns and creating shifts in household dynamics.<\/p>\n

Religious dogmas: <\/strong>The most evident psychosocial influences on family planning service use amongst women are the behavioral norms of the society in which they reside. For example: in Islam, the prevailing value systems of purdah and izzat encourage the segregation of the sexes and the confinement of women to the family home, reducing women\u2019s mobility and access to services. Family planning services with male practitioners, or those located in areas where there may be males present a barrier to use for women who are observing purdah. Women may need permission from their husband or household elders to seek health care. Additionally, the doctrine of Islam has often been interpreted to forbid the use of family planning methods.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Relevance: Sociology-II Family planning in India is based on efforts largely sponsored by the Indian government. Over the years, contraceptive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,116],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4331,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions\/4331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}