CONTRACEPTIVE USE AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY AMONG MARRIED FEMALES IN A RURAL AREA OF GURUGRAM, INDIA

Abstract

Introduction: Its appropriately said that empowering women is fostering the Nation’s empowerment. In the last two decades much focus has been given on women’s empowerment and promoting their rights. The cruciality linking the use of contraceptives and women empowerment has been well established with a direct and positive impact on maternal health and child health. Although there has been limited literature in this reference especially in rural area of Gurugram. The aim To assess the prevalence of women empowerment and assess the association between use of contraceptives and unmet needs with women empowerment among the married females constituting the study area. Methods: The study was conducted among married females (18 to 45 years)after getting informed consent from each subject. Two stage sampling technique was done through PPS (Probability Proportional to Size), in which a pre-tested, semi structured questionnaire was used with information about age, education, type of family, socio-economic status, age at first child, number of children, use of contraceptive methods, factors associated with unmet needs. A self-validated scale was used to assess the status of women empowerment among the study participants. Results: In this study Mean age of study population was 25.96 ± 30.021. In this study, 40.83% were not empowered still in the current study while 24.72% were partially empowered and 34.44% were fully empowered in the current study. Conclusion: The use of contraception was more in higher empowered women as compared to partially empowered or not empowered females.