The Geographer

India present a peculiar case in terms of its population size and of extreme demographic, social and economic regional disparities. There are also wide differentials between states in the performance of family welfare programme. Uttar Pradesh is one of those major states which are lagging in this field. Thus, the objectives of the present study are to study the use of contraceptive methods and factors influencing the acceptance of contraception in rural area of Chakia Development Block (District-Chandauli, U.P.). Chakia block is economically backward and naxal affected region of the Eastern Uttar Pradesh. In the study area, both physical and cultural factors have shown their negative impact on success of family planning. Keeping the above facts in consideration, the present was conducted to determine the knowledge and adoption of rural women towards contraceptive use and attempt is also made to identify factors affecting the performance of these family welfare programmes and to suggest some measures to improve it. 550 participants (age 1549) were selected through stratified-random sampling from five villages. Information was collected through a structured questionnaire. Results revealed that most of the women have knowledge about contraceptive methods as 78.18 per cent respondents are familiar with at least one method. Contraceptive prevalence in the studied sample is 68.36 per cent. Women in the age between 15 to 49 years, 82.2 percent women are married below the age of 18 years and only 17.8 percent women are married above 18 years. The study revealed that the status of women in Indian villages, as reflected with their problems in adopting contraceptive methods, was quite low. Thus, the Central and State government is encouraged to strengthen delivery services for contraceptive methods and to make women more aware of the realities of contraceptive use.