More married women take part in household decisions about purchases, health, family trips: NHS survey

NEW DELHI: The National Family Health Survey-6 (2023-24) has shown that participation of married women in household decision-making has increased over the years, with data revealing that 89% were involved in decisions about their own healthcare, major household purchases and visits to family and relatives.

The participation of married women (15-49 years) in these three household decisions was high across both rural and urban areas - 88% and 91.4%, respectively. The figure has been rising over successive NFHS rounds at the pan-India level. It was 84% in (2015-16), 88.7% in 2019-21 and 89% in the latest survey. It also came through that the percentage of women having a bank or savings account that they themselves use has risen from 78.6% in the previous survey to 89% in the 2023-24 survey.

However, the data also brings into focus the challenges. For instance, at the time of the survey, the percentage of women who had worked in the last 12 months and were paid in cash stood at just 30.8%. The figure was even lower at 25.4% in NFHS-5. In 2023-24, this percentage for women was 29.8% in urban areas and 31.2% in rural areas.

In the data on contraception, it is notable that while the use of family planning methods by married women (15-49 years) rose to 69.1% from 66.7% in NFHS-5, when it comes to sterilisation, there was a stark difference between the percentage of women and men taking that route.

NFHS-6 found that female sterilisation stood at 36.5% whereas male sterilisation was at merely 0.5%. In the previous survey, this percentage was higher for women (37.9%) and lower for men (0.3%).

The data is telling as it highlights challenges arising out of deep-rooted societal gender norms and indicates that many still hold on to the belief that the onus of family planning largely rests with the woman.

The survey findings on sterilisation show that female sterilisation was notably higher in rural areas (38.1%) compared to 32.6% in urban areas. In the case of men, those opting for sterilisation was equally low in both rural and urban areas at 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Meanwhile, a look at urban and rural data shows that there was not much difference in the percentage of married women using any form, including traditional and modern, of family planning methods - 69.6% in urban areas and 68.9% women in rural areas.

The survey also looked at the unmet need for family planning (currently married women in age group of 15-49 years), which stood at 8.5%, and was higher at 9.1% in rural areas as against 7% in urban areas. The unmet need for family planning refers to women who do not use contraception but wish to postpone next childbirth or stop childbearing altogether.