Contraceptive use in India and the weight women still carry: insights from NFHS-6
The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) in India highlights a shift in how contraception is viewed, moving from a tool for population control to a symbol of women's reproductive agency. The article argues that reproductive autonomy is a critical, often overlooked, metric of women's empowerment.
Why it matters
Understanding reproductive agency is essential for accurate assessments of gender equality and social development in India.
Reproductive agency, the power to decide whether, when, and how to bear children is a vital and necessary component of women’s empowerment, and yet, is often not taken into account when metrics of income, education, mobility and political representation are analysed. India’s demographic transition, as reflected in the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6, 2023–24) , besides revealing incremental changes in health indicators, also signals a structural shift in the domain of reproductive agency. Contraception, once framed primarily as an instrument of population control, is increasingly emerging as a marker of women’s reproduction agency.
The article presents a sociological analysis of government data without overt political advocacy.
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