Participation of Males in Decision Making as an Index of Their Perceived Involvement in Reproductive and Child Health in Tamil Nadu, India

Kulasekaran Ravishankar, Annamalai University

This study tries to assess the varying levels of participation of men and women in family decision making and its impact on contraceptive adoption, maternal and child health care, breast feeding practice, unwanted pregnancies and abortion practice, awareness of HIV/AIDS, etc. An attempt was also made to examine the relationship between the socio-economic and demographic backgrounds and the decision making between the spouses. The data were drawn from the NFHS– II The findings revealed that 46.69 percent of the spouses had equal participation in decision making. Equal participation of wife and husband in decision making was responsible for high contraceptive adoption, better utilization of ante-natal and post-natal care services, more institutional deliveries, low proportion of unwanted pregnancies, safe abortion practice, greater awareness about HIV/AIDS, better knowledge of RTI and favorable behavior change to seek treatment, etc. which are the some reproductive health components.