The Level of Unmet Need & Social Correlates: An Experience from a District in West Bengal

Background: The rampant population growth has been viewed as the greatest obstacle to the economic and social advancement to the majority of people in the underdeveloped world. Objectives: To determine the social correlates of unmet need in a Community setting. Study Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive type of observational study. Methods and Materials: The sampling technique used was a Multistage stratified random sampling. One district was chosen randomly from the 19 in the state of West Bengal, India. Out of total 29 blocks in the district, 3 were selected randomly from different subdivision. From these blocks, 12 villages (4 villages from each block) and 4 urban wards were selected from municipality areas, so total 16 areas selected from the district. In West Bengal unmet need for family planning was 8% as per NFHS-3 (2005-2006), and considering maximum allowable error (20%), so minimum sample size works out to be 1150. From each village/ward, 125 eligible couples were covered, so (16 × 125) total 2000 currently married women of reproductive age constitutes the study population. Statistical Analysis: Proportions and Chi-square test. Results: 13.6% of currently married women of reproductive age group (15-49 yrs.) experienced unmet need for contraception. Unmet need was more in rural area than urban, lower age group than higher, Muslims than Hindus, lower level of literacy (including illiterates) than higher and also increase of joint families than nuclear families. Conclusion: Social correlates like age, religion, literacy status of respondent, type of family, age at marriage, even literacy status of husband also influenced the unmet need of family planning. Sustained and coherent Behavior Change Communication campaign is required to reduce unmet need.