Contraceptive Behaviour of Tribal Eligible Couples in Bankura district of West Bengal

Objectives: To assess the contraceptive behaviour of eligible couples of tribal population in Taldangra block, Bankura, West Bengal, to find out the socio demographic factors influencing their contraceptive behaviour and to explore the reasons for non-usage of contraceptive methods.

Material and methods: Across sectional community based study was conducted in Taldangra block (consisting 45 tribal hamlets) in Bankura district of West Bengal. The calculated sample size was 280, considering the couple protection rate of West Bengal as 60%. All currently married women in the age group of 15 to 45 years were interviewed with the help of pre-designed, pretested structured schedule by house to house survey. Relation between contraceptive use and increasing parity was tested using X² for trend.

Results: Contraceptive Prevalence Rate was 40.07%. Among the current users 41.59% had tubectomy. An increasing trend in contraceptive use was seen with increasing parity in the study population. Contraceptive usage was maximum among educated couples, women in their thirties (age 30-35) and women with two or three living children.

Conclusion promoting the levels of education of the tribal women would postpone their age of marriage and further facilitate attainment of an adequate and sustainable family size.