Examining Unmet Need for Family Planning as a Tool to Strengthen Reproductive Child Health Services in Orissa, India

Ranjana Kar, Government of Orissa

The poor reproductive health in a population is the outcome of prevailing unmet need for family planning practices. The present study aims to assess unmet need in Orissa, India. Orissa has moderate fertility but very high infant and child mortality in India (i.e. Infant Mortality Rate is second highest in India). The paper examines the regional variation along with the background characteristics of women in the population. It uses data from three rounds of the National Family Survey (NFHS-1, NFHS-2 & NFHS-3). Multinomial logistic regression (m-log) models and GIS have been used to analyze the data. The study reveals that the programme should look into the unmet need of women who are young, lower parity, rural areas, illiterate, other backward class, non-working, lower standard of living and poor inter-spouse communication about family planning in order to address the unmet need directly as well as poverty in Orissa.