Abstract. Based on data from India’s 1992–93 National Family Health Survey, this study analyzes the main reasons for discontinuing contraceptive use and for not intending to use contraception in the future. The study also analyzes the effects of seven demographic and socioeconomic variables on reported reasons for discontinuing contraception or intending not to use contraception. The results indicate that 38% of currently married women age 13–49 who discontinued using contraception did so because of a method-related problem or method failure. Comparing states, the proportion who discontinued because of a methodrelated problem or method failure ranges widely—from 11% in Meghalaya to 94% in Nagaland. It is not highly correlated with state-level fertility. By contrast, the proportion reporting a method-related problem or method failure as their main reason for discontinuing contraception does not vary widely across socioeconomic groups, either within individual states or in India as a whole.
In the country as a whole, 15% of women who do not use contraception and who do not intend to use contraception in the future report method-related problems as their main reason for not intending to use contraception, while 9% mention opposition to family planning. The proportion reporting method-related problems or opposition to family planning is particularly high among women in the prime reproductive
ages and among women not regularly exposed to electronic mass media. The proportion reporting opposition to family planning is several times higher among Muslim women than among Hindu women or women of other religions. The estimated effects of age, media exposure, and religion are largely independent of other, potentially confounding, socioeconomic variables. Only 1% or less of women mention accessibility or cost as their main reason for discontinuing contraception or not intending to use contraception in the future. Similarly, very few women mention replacing a dead child as a reason for discontinuing contraception. The finding that method-related problems and method failure are important reasons for discontinuing contraception and the finding that method-related problems
and opposition to family planning are important reasons for not intending to use contraception in the future suggest that the quality of family planning services in India4 National Family Health Survey Subject Reports, No. 13 needs improvement. These findings also suggest the importance of education and motivation activities. Programmes should pay particular attention to women in those states and social categories in which the proportions mentioning method-related problems and opposition to family planning are especially high.