A Comparative Study on Family Planning Practices between the Rural and Urban Women of West Bengal, India

The present study was an endeavour to understand the knowledge, attitude and practices towards adoption of family planning methods among the rural and urban women of West Bengal. Agroup of 200women(100 ruraland 100 urban) whowerein wedlock, aged between 17 and 45 years and have at least one child were selected for the study. An urban slum was selected from the city of Kolkata, which represents the ‘urban group’. Two villages from the district of Bankura were purposively selected where the major occupation of the people was day labour. Results showed an association between socio-economic variables and adoption of family planning methods; the usage of Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs) were maximum among the urban, women (p < 0.001) and majority of the rural women have adopted female sterilisation (p < 0.01). Although the knowledge about various contraceptive methods was high in both the groups, a significant gap (p < 0.05) was observed in their knowledge and practices of various contraceptive methods. We conclude from this study that there is need to edify the rural and urban women about the different contraceptives usage, focus on their efficacy and resolve different health-related issues of the different contraceptives.