Differential utilization in reproductive health care: northern versus southern India

Koyel Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Utilisation of reproductive health care by women is intrinsically related with fertility and its outcome. The present paper therefore is an exploratory attempt to discover factors affecting utilisation of reproductive health care in four large states of India viz. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in North India and Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in South India. While all four exhibit low female age at marriage, but fertility differentials reveal Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to lag much behind Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The prime objective of the study is to identify factors that lead to differential utilisation of reproductive health care facilities by married women, questions prevailing to norms and to focus on policy implications in the light of prevailing prejudices. The study shows, antenatal care practices are more prevalent than postnatal care practices in all the states among which the northern states practice the least while the southern states practice more.