Practice of Female Sterilization in India: A Gender Disparity Approach

Globally, India became the first developing nation to start a government supported family planning approach in 1952. The programme has completed more than seven decades with change in policy approach from clinical based to target-free approach. Despite of emphasizing on choice based contraceptive methods women bear the burden of family planning with extensive practice of female sterilization throughout the country. With this backdrop, the current paper seeks to highlight the increasing trend of female sterilization compared to male sterilization and other family planning methods in India. It further attempts to analyze the factors associated with the rising trend of female sterilization by using a gender lens. The research paper is based on data collected from secondary sources, especially by using National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The finding of the study demonstrates an increasing trend of female sterilization in India and there exists significant influence of the socio-cultural factors and gender biasness. The family planning burden is majorly borne by women in terms of using other contraceptive methods and there is lack of male participation. This shows that gender biasness is firmly connected to the provision, adoption and utilization of the family planning services in India.