Contraceptive Use among Poor and Non-Poor in Asian Countries: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Family planning is one of the most inexpensive interventions to empower poor women to exercise their rights to better sexual and reproductive health. In many populations, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) still remains low and unmet need remains high. We study the family planning practices and the contextual factors explaining the differentials in contraceptive use among poor and non-poor women in selected Asian countries. We have used Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data for six Asian countries. We have derived Poor and non-poor by computing wealth index for the countries studied. We found that, CPR had increased dramatically especially among poor women although it was not equally shared across the countries and the poor and non-poor gap still exists. Therefore, CPR has much room to expand, especially among poor women.