Marriage practices, decision-making process and contraception use among young married men in rural Odisha, India

Abstract

Research on sexual and reproductive health including contraception use has predominantly focussed on women’s behaviour. Much less is known about men’s behaviour. We investigated the links between marriage practices and decision-making about contraception use among young married men in rural Odisha. This cross-sectional study used a mixed methods design. Data were collected through household surveys and in-depth interviews. Study findings revealed that over half of men were ill prepared for marriage and lacked understanding about what it would entail. Familiarity and communication between spouses were higher in self-arranged marriages and this contributed considerably to contraception use, while negative attitudes and lack of access to contraceptive supply and counselling hindered it. Many young men shied away from seeking contraception services at community level since the majority of frontline health workers providing such services were female. Findings reinforce the need for health system change to actively engage and involve young married men in decision-making about contraception use as well as to introduce male frontline health workers who can reach out to young men on SRH issues.

Keywords:

• Marriage
• decision-making
• contraception
• young men
• Odisha

Acknowledgements

This paper forms a part of the first author’s doctoral thesis and benefitted from comments and feedback from the thesis advisors, Shireen Jejeebhoy and T.V. Sekher. The earlier version of the paper was selected for the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, 2020 and was presented in a virtual session. Feedback from participants and the chair of the session, Ilene Speizer, is acknowledged with thanks.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The authors did not receive any funding to conduct this study. However, the work was completed while the first author was a recipient of the Government of India University Grants Commission-Senior Research Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies in public health at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Notes

1 Non-concrete dwelling units in which the roof, wall and floor are made up of mud, straw, wood, dry leaves and other locally available building materials.