Effect of women’s decision-making power and contraceptive information given to them in controlling Female Sterilisation scenario of India

India has a very high prevalence of female sterilisation compared to other developed/developing countries in the world, with a prevailing situation of very low level of information about contraceptive options given to women. It is well established in demographic research that, there exists a strong association between contraceptive knowledge and type of contraception chosen.
Present study uses data from 3 consecutive rounds of National Family Health Survey (3, 4 & 5) with currently married women who started using the current method 5 years prior to each round of survey. Multilevel Mixed Effect Logistic Regression and Fairlie Decomposition Model are used to analyse the effect of information given to respondents and decision-making power for contraceptive choice.
Women who were told about other available methods at the time of initiation of contraceptive use are less likely (45.8% in NFHS-3, 37.5% in NFHS-4 & 40% in NFHS-5) to choose female sterilisation as a method. Respondents (women) who are taking contraceptive decisions by their own also have a lower chance for opting sterilisation. The twofold fairlie decompositions show that women who were told about other methods and side effects of the methods, higher number of sons, and having 10 or more years of schooling increase the gap of sterilisation percentage (or decrease sterilisation prevalence) between two survey periods. These aforesaid factors contribute 87.93%, 13.32%, 51.27% and 14.27% respectively from NFHS-3 to NFHS-5. Whereas being in the richest category of wealth, being backward caste, being Muslim by faith, husband as the decision maker for contraception and residing in rural areas contribute 36.13%, 26.36%, 4.5% 6.8% & 6.13% respectively in reducing the gap between NFHS-3 to NFHS-5 or increase the chance of sterilisation.
From the research it can be concluded that to minimalise the over dependency on female sterilisation, women empowerment and complete information of other available contraceptive methods along with the side effects and its management needs to be focused by policy makers.