Religion and the Decision to Use Contraception in India

Abstract

This article investigates two hypotheses put forward to explain the effect of religion on the decision to use contraception in India. The first hypothesis is the "pure religion effect," that the intellectual content of religion influences contraceptive behavior. This hypothesis is explored by examining women's views on the theological content of Islam and Hinduism in relation to birth control, provided by a sample of 186 rural Hindu and Muslim women from southern India. The second hypothesis examined is the "characteristics" hypothesis, that religious differences in contraceptive adoption are explained by socioeconomic characteristics of religious groups. This is tested by a logit model that shows that there is no statistically significant difference between Hindus and Muslims in the effect of religion on contraceptive adoption, after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics. Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative findings have significant implications for religious groups and for population policies in India.Even as the population of India surpassed the one billion milestone in the year 2000, the research that has examined recent fertility trends (Dharmalingam and Morgan 1996; Säävälä 1999) has not taken into account adequately the causes of religious differentials in fertility found among subgroups of the population, such as between Hindus and Muslims. This article evaluates whether religion in India influences one proximate determinant of fertility-the decision to use contraception-even after controlling for the impact of other socioeconomic factors that influence contraceptive use. The first section puts forward why we should care about religion and contraception in India in the context of research on Hinduism, Islam, and contraceptive behavior. The next section describes the data and methods used to investigate this issue empirically. To explore the relationship specifically between religion and contraception, a detailed micro-level data set was collected in five villages and the town of Ramanagaram in Ramanagaram taluk in the south Indian state of Karnataka. This data set consists of detailed demographic information on a sample of rural Hindu and Muslim women in order to understand the relationship between their adherence to religion and the decision to use contraception, a relationship that is notoriously difficult to unravel in fieldwork. This information is presented in the third section. Next is an outline of a binomial logit model of the socioeconomic and religious determinants of contraceptive use for the sample. Results of this estimation follow and then the implications of the quantitative and qualitative findings are discussed for state-level population policies in India. WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT RELIGION AND CONTRACEPTION?There are two hypotheses that propose certain links between religion and contraceptive adoption; these are the "pure religion effect" hypothesis-that the intellectual content of religion or theology affects contraceptive use; and the "characteristics" hypothesis-th...

Religious distributions of knowledge and practices of sexual behaviors among young married women in India

“…[14,15] The current use of contraceptive methods among young married women was almost similar for Hindus (41%) and Muslims (39%). [13,16] Contrary to our results, other studies have also revealed lower contraceptive use among Muslims. [17,18] Comparable findings for the current use have been reported in a study where acceptance of family planning was slightly higher in Muslims than in Hindus.…”

“…[16,20] The usage of pills, IUDs, and condoms was higher among Muslims (19%) as reported by Nazish, [16] National Family Health Survey. [21] This study also confirmed similar to other studies [13,16] that the traditional contraceptive methods were more popular among Muslim couples compared to Hindu couples. Our study also revealed that more than 14% of women had experienced their first sexual intercourse before marriage.…”

“…[10][11][12] In the present study, the knowledge of ovulatory cycle among young married women was quite low which was in conformity with the other findings. [8,9,13] However, these findings were in dissonance with others. [14,15] The current use of contraceptive methods among young married women was almost similar for Hindus (41%) and Muslims (39%).…”

Marriage, not Religion, is Associated with HIV Infection Among Women in Rural Malawi

“…Other authors e.g. Amin et al [34], Iyer [35,36], Jeffrey and Jeffrey [37] have also reported on the different understandings within Islam on whether modern contraceptives are or are not permitted within the religion. In addition, people may join religions in order to access education, health care and material support and not because they agree to the doctrines or teachings of that particular faith [38].…”

The association between religious homogamy and reproduction

“…The effects of contraceptive use on fertility seem to be particularly important in developing countries. An example is Southern India, where 99% of Muslim and 81% of Hindu women suppose that their religion does not permit contraceptive use [17]. In line with this finding, Knodel et al [18] report-for Thailand-higher fertility as a result of less likely contraceptive use among Muslim women.…”