International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, February-2014 46

ISSN 2229-5518

A study of the awareness of of family planning among the rural population in Tamil Nadu

K.UMA

Abstract— Objectives :

To assess the knowledge and attitude regarding family planning and the practice of contraceptives among the population of reproductive age group in rural parts of Kancheepuram Districts and to determine the barriers for contraceptive use among them. The study highlights that knowledge and awareness alone does not help in the use of does not. The need to educate and motivate the couples and improve family planning services to achieve more effective and appropriate use of contraceptives and to arrest the trend towards growth of population

Index Terms— Attitude, Awareness, Contraceptives, Family planning, Policies, Reproduction, Respondents.

——————————  ——————————

IJSER © 2014 http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, February-2014 47

ISSN 2229-5518

1 Introduction

India is second to China in being the most populous country of the world. India has the credit of launching the idea of Planned Family. The Govt of India launched a family welfare program in 1950’s to accelerate the economic and social development by reducing the population growth. But this program has met with only marginal success. This is because people of India being multi linguistic, multi religious and multiethnic, have
different levels of awareness and acceptance of methods of
family planning. It is thus, necessary to develop special program to tackle the needs of different groups. Before launching a special program, a thorough understanding of the different set of people is of utmost importance.
Family planning is defined by WHO as “a way of thinking and living that is adopted voluntarily, upon the basis of knowledge, attitudes and responsible decisions by individuals and couples, in order to promote the health and welfare of family groups and thus contribute effectively to the social development of a country”.
In recent years, the need for such studies to understand the factors determining the fertility,acceptance of the concept of family planning,has been on the upbeat.acceptance and practices by the people has been felt so strong, that gaining of more specific knowledge about factors determining family planning,its acceptance by mass has facilitated the developing of a suitable program for them. This study has been made to find the reasons for these unmet needs and factors affecting the outcome of family planning program and to have a better understanding of the situation in order help the Government in formulation of polices and modify its approach in this field. In rural Tamil Nadu, subjective
efficacy and openness to change were related essentially to family planning attitudes, whereas in urban Tamil Nadu they were strongly related to adoption. In the latter area, the best linear association between the modernity
variables (predictor set) and the family planning variables (criterion set) resulted when the criterion set was so weighted that it involved a large amount of adoption and a moderate amount of contraceptive knowledge and
attitudes

IJSER © 2014 http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, February-2014 48

ISSN 2229-5518

2 PROCEDURE

A cr os s s e ct i ona l d e s c r ip t i ve s t ud y wa s d one i n t he
3 - 4 v illa g es a long t he c r os s s e ct ion of t he
k a nc he e p ur a m d i s t r i c t . The s t ud y g r o up i nc l ud e d a l l
t he 438 m e n and wom e n of re p rod uc t i ve ag e g roup
( 15 - 54 ye ars ) , f or t he p as t 5 d e cad e s . The p at t e rn of
lit e r ac y rat e and re l i g i o us wis e d is t ri b ut i o n
of r e s p ond e nt s r e s id ing in t he v illa g es is s im ila r t o
t he i nc l us i o n c r i t e r i a : m e n a nd wom e n of
r ep r od uc t i ve a g e g r oup , l i v i ng i n t he s el ec t ed
v illa g e s , a n d m a r r i ed a n d l i v i n g t o g et h er
a n d w h o w e r e w illi n g t o p a r t ic ip a t e in o u r
s t u d y. T h e e x c l u s i o n c r i t e r i a : m e n a n d w o m e n
b el o w o r a b o v e r ep r o d u c t i v e a g e g r o u p t h o s e
w h o w e r e , n o t w il li n g t o p a r t ic ip a t e in o u r
st u d y p u r p o se sa m p l i n g w i t h sn o w b a ll
t ec h n i q u e wa s u s e d . A we l l - s t ru c t u re d q u e s t i o n n ai r e w as u s e d f o r d at a
c o lle c t io n o n g e n e r a l i n f o r m a t io n , k n o w le d g e an d at t i t u d e re g ar d i n g f am i l y p l a n n i n g m e t h o d s , an d c o n t rac e p t i v e p rac t i c e s . D a t a w er e c o l l ec t ed t h r o u g h q u e s t i o n n a i r e b y
i n t er v i ew t ec h n i q u e . t h e d ep e n d e n t v a r i a b l es w er e k n o w l e d g e, a t t i t u d e , an d p rac t i c e o f m e n an d w o m e n re g ard i n g f am i l y p l a n n i n g . i n d e p e nd e n t v a r i a b l e s w e r e a g e o f
t h e w o m e n o f re p ro d u c t i v e ag e g r o u p , ag e at m e n arc h e , ag e at m arri ag e , d u rat i o n o f m a r r ie d lif e , c o n s u lt a t io n o f f a m i l y p l a nni ng a n d n a t u r e o f f a m ily. D e s c r ip t iv e s t a t is t ic s w a s u s e d f o r d a t a a n a ly s is . A ll t h e c o lle c t e d d at a w e re a n al y ze d w i t h re g ard t o t h e
i n f o r m a t i o n g i v e n b y t h e s u b j e c t s i n t h e s e t q u e s t io n n a ir e

Resu lt s

A m ong t he 4 3 8 m e n a nd wo m e n i n t he s t ud y g r o up
m ore t han80% we re i n t he ag e g roup of 15 t o 34. s c &
s t s we re ( 27. 8%) f ol l owe d by m bc ( 36. 1% ) , ot he rs as
20. 1% and 16. 4 res p e c t i ve l y. 21. 7% p e rc e nt of t he
p e op l e we re l i t e rat e. al m os t al l ( 73. 1%) we re m arri e d and m aj ori t y ( 80. 1% ) of we re ho us e wi ve s ( t abl e 1) .
Ta bl e 1. S oc i o d e m og rap hi c c orre l at e s ( n=4 38) .
C h a r a ct e r i s t i cs
K nowl e d g e

Knowledge

Eighty eight percent of the men and women had heard about family planning methods and only very few (12%) were unaware. About 54.4% of them got information about contraceptives form mass media (Table 2)

According to most of the people, family planning meant having small and happy family and only 29.8%said it was for birth spacing. Almost all (95.8%) of them had heard about oral contraceptive pills. 74.2% of them had heard about condoms and 72% were aware about Copper-T, and over half (67%) of them had heard about tubectomy and nearly one third (34%) were aware about vasectomy. Most of them knew that contraceptive were available in Government Hospital (62.8%) and Medical shops (52.5%) (Table 2)

Table 2. Knowledge and awareness regarding contraception
(n=438).
C onc e p t re g ard i ng s m al l f am i l y norm * N =434

IJSER © 2014 http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, February-2014 49

ISSN 2229-5518

Use of contraceptives 19is.4 beneficial42598Would
would practice-fam8i1ly.6 planning/encourage a friend to40493
415 98
394 92.1
. Methods of contraception*N=417
never adopted FP 198 44
Willing to adopt
Table 4. Contraceptives in the past used ** (n=215)Oral
Source of availability * N=413
Reason for using them
Reason for using contraceptive *
* Multiple responses
83.5% of women knew that contraceptives were used for preventing unwanted births and only 8.2% knew that condom can be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.44.6% women were not using contraception, but were willing to adopt family planning in future and over98% women though that family planning was beneficial and 93.2% said hat they would like to encourage their friends and relatives to use family planning (Table (3).
Practice
Of 185 women who had used contraceptives, 85%were
satisfied with contraceptives that they had used in the past and
62% were still using contraceptives and were satisfied with the
contraceptives they were presently using. Among the user of
contraceptives37.9% of had oral pills and 31% the barrier
method(condom). Twenty seven percent had undergone
tubectomy and 24% had used IUD55.5% of the women chose
the methods because they found it comfortable, and easy to
use. In 41.6% of the women the choice of methods used was
decided by their husbands (Table 4).
Barriers to using contraceptions
30.8% of women did not disclose the reason for not using
contraceptives. 25.5% were not using any contraceptive
because they were planning pregnancy, while 14.8% because
they did not have knowledge about contraception. 10.6 were
currently pregnant (Table 5).

Table 3. Attitude towards family planning (n=434). Attitude n=434 % age
Table 5. Bariers to using contraceptives * (n=198)

Discussion
During the course of reference work, books, newspapers,
articles ,journals and web sources were searched. The literature
about family planning in the context of Kancheepuram (Tamil
Nadu) is found to be limited.
Findings:
In the present study, more than 80% were in the age group of
15 and 34 years and were literate. The age group characteristics
were similar to the study conducted by Shrivastava et a1 in
Ghorakhpur but in their study nearly half of the respondents
were illiterate and from rural background. Mohanan et al in a
study from Dakshina Kannada concluded that majority (
52.4%) of the women using contraception were in the age
group of 15-34 years.
A survey conducted in Manipur by Donati et al concluded that the use of modern family planning methods increases with education, while female sterilization prevalence decline

IJSER © 2014 http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, February-2014 50

ISSN 2229-5518

sharply with women’s education level. Muslims used lower rates of contraceptive use (17%) than Hindu (62%) even after controlling for education. This is also corroborated by our study wherein majority of users were Hindus76% compared to only 3% Muslims.I
n our study 54.4% had gained information from T.V / Radio, Newspapers and Magazines, 37% from friends and relatives, and only 7.9% from health personnel, whereas in Srivastava et al’s1 study 70%had gained knowledge of contraceptives from friends and family and 39% from television and radio.95.8% of our subjects knew about the oral contraceptive pills, 74.2% about condoms, 72% about copper T, 67% about tubectomy and 34% about vasectomy while in Srivastva et al’s study 82% were aware about female sterilization, 50% were aware of vasectomy, and IUCD was the most known (61%)temporary method followed by OC pills (60%) and condoms (50%). In their study 17% were not aware of any form of contraception as against 6% in our study.I n our study 44.6% had never used any contraceptive compared to 55% in Srivastava et al’s1 study and 8%in Young et al’s study done in New Zealand.In our study among the users of contraceptives 37.9%had taken oral contraceptive pills and 31% had used condoms while in Srivastav et al’s1 study 34 % had used condoms, 26% natural methods and only 18%oral pills.
In a study done in fishermen in Tamil Nadu2 almost two-fifths of the respondents had ever used some type of contraception during their married life and sterilization was the most accepted method.Singh3 et al in a study from Manipur conclude that 70% of the couples had adopted permanent family planning methods. In our study 27% of the used had accepted tubectomy. India being multi linguistic, multi religious and multi ethnic population, it is necessary to develop special program to tackle the needs of different groups.
Conclusion
Knowledge and awareness always do not lead one, to the use
of contraceptives.One needs to understand the level of
awareness and practices in the community before
implementing the family planning program. There is a need to
educate and motivate the couples along with improvement in family planning services to promote the contraceptives
References
1.Srivastava R, Srivastava D K, Jina R et al.Contraceptive knowledge attitude and practice (KAP)survey J
2.Donati S, Sharma N, Medda M et al. Family planning knowledge attitude and practice survey in Manipure state
3.Mohanan P, Kamath A, Sajjan BS Fertility pattern and family planning practices in rural area in Dakshina Kannada.
4.Rao, GR. Moulasha K, Surrender S. Knowledge attitude and practice of family planning among fishermen in Tamil Nadu
5.Singh RKN, Ibetomb Devi, Bidhumukhidevi et al. Acceptability of contraceptive methods among Urban eligible couples of Imphal, Manipur.
6. Bishwanath Mukherjee, Multivariate relationships between
Modernity value Orientations and Family Planning Indicators.

IJSER © 2014 http://www.ijser.org