Male Participation in Family Planning: Human Behaviour Perspective.

BACKGROUND: Family planning (FP) is one of the major components of reproductive health and its goal is to prevent unwanted pregnancies and regulate wanted pregnancies, thereby ensuring the health of mothers and children. It also aims at regulating the population in order to maintain the vital balance between development and the environment. Ideally, FP depends on the efforts of a couple where the man and woman are equally responsible and accountable. In reality, however, this is not the case. It is in this background that the present study aims at examining the nature and level of male participation in preventing unwanted pregnancies and the factors that influence male participation in FP.

METHODS: The data for the study was derived using mixed methods, drawing from both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The research design was cross-sectional, descriptive and observational.

RESULTS: Despite the high level of knowledge and awareness about FP among the respondents, it was found that male participation in FP continues to remain very low. The multidimensional factors influencing their participation include education of the couple (the unadjusted odds ratio of higher education level of respondents is 2.182 and the adjusted OR is 1.972; and the unadjusted OR of higher education level of the spouse is 2.030, and the adjusted OR is 1.570), and economic condition (the unadjusted OR of higher income is 2.272 and the adjusted OR is 2.436) of family. Male participation in FP was found to be higher in rural areas (69.8 %) and among Dalits (72.5%). Other factors include social stigma and religious practice, patriarchal notions, gender roles and individual characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: Male participation plays a crucial role in population management, but patriarchal notions, socioculturally defined gender roles, combined with the inefficiency of the current FP programme, and biological factors contribute towards keeping male participation very low.