Contraceptive use among panel women increased from 53% in 2020 to 56% in 2022-PMA India Survey Reveals
Jaipur, 7th April 2023: PMA (Performance Monitoring for Action) India, a project on family planning (FP) and other key health indicators, disseminated survey results for 2022 today. IIHMR University implements the PMA India project in Rajasthan. The workshop was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad Doriya, Director, RCH, Department of Medical, Health, and Family Welfare, Govt. of Rajasthan. Dr. Girish Dwivedi, Project Director, Family Welfare, Govt. of Rajasthan, Dr. P R Sodani, President, IIHMR University, and Dr. Anoop Khanna, Principal Investigator, PMA India, and Professor, IIHMR University, were also present during the event. Representatives from development partners, implementers, and researchers from across the country witnessed the event.
On the occasion, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Doriya said, “The PMA project has significantly strengthened our healthcare systems by improving data quality, monitoring, and evaluation. This has enabled us to make timely and informed decisions, review healthcare programs, and identify gaps in our healthcare system. With the use of PMA data, we have been able to monitor the progress of our healthcare programs and identify areas where we need to focus our efforts, which has led to a significant improvement in the health status of our citizens increased the use of family planning methods.”
On this occasion, Dr. Girish Dwivedi, Project Director, Family Welfare, Govt. of Rajasthan, said, “The data being released today is of great significance for the government. It will inform our policies and programs and help us make data-driven decisions. PMA collects a nationally or sub-nationally representative sample of data from households and women in selected sites, to estimate family planning and other health indicators on an annual basis in nine pledging FP2020 countries.”
Dr. P R Sodani, President, IIHMR University, said, “PMA project was initially started by JHU and Jhpiego, and in India, IIHMR is leading this project. It is a multi-country study and provides actionable data. I would like to thank the government of Rajasthan for their continuous support towards our project, it is because of their support that we can implement it successfully in Rajasthan.”
Dr. Anoop Khanna, Principal Investigator, PMA India, and Professor, IIHMR University, presented the survey’s key findings. Dr. Khanna said that among panel women, contraceptive use increased from 53% in 2020 to 56 % in 2022. Panel women adopting long-acting methods increased by 2 percentage points each year. Dr. Khanna added that the percentage of women using modern contraceptive methods has generally increased over time for both all women and married women, while the unmet need for contraception has decreased.
Over the years, the availability of injectables, male condoms, and pills has increased in public facilities. In the survey, it was revealed that one in four women was told about other contraceptive methods by their provider and that they could switch to a different method. Around 48% of women were informed by their providers about the side effects or problems they might experience when obtaining their contraceptive method. As per the survey, there was a steady decrease in the non-use of contraceptives, dropping from 47% in 2020 to 44% in 2022. Most of adolescents (15–19) continued as nonusers between 2021 and 2022. 60% of the women in the age group of 20–24 years, continued non-use between 2021 and 2022.
In Rajasthan, data collection is led by the Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR), in Jaipur under the project PMA India. PMA involves India as one of the program countries out of the other nine countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. IIHMR University implements the project in collaboration with Jhpiego, Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with support from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Rajasthan. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fund project. PMA India collects information on knowledge, practice, and coverage of family planning services in 134 enumeration areas selected using a multi-stage stratified cluster design with urban-rural strata. The results are representative at the state level and within urban/rural strata. Phase 3 of data collection was conducted between September to November 2022.