Disparities in the contraceptive use among currently married women in Muslim densely populated states of India: An evidence from the nationally representative survey

Background: The rationalizations for low use of contraception and high fertility among Muslims compared to other religious group in India are highly controversial. The study was aimed to explain to what extent differences in the use of contraception exist among the religious groups and also to examine its associated factors in the Muslim populated States in the country. Methods: The third round of District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3) was used to accomplish our objectives. Bivariate analysis was used to show the religion wise distribution of limiting, spacing and traditional methods of contraceptive use in relation to socio-economic characteristics. The multivariate logistic regression was employed to estimate the odds ratio (95% CI) for contraceptive use. The Fairlie decomposition model has also been applied to identify the determinant factors of differentiating contraceptive utilization among Muslims and Non-Muslims. SPSS 20.0 version and Arc GIS 10.0 softwares were employed to carry out the analyses. Results: The study found that the prevalence of limiting contraceptive use was comparatively much lower among Muslims (19.9%) than Non-Muslims (39.3%). In comparison to Non-Muslims, Muslims used 3.5 percentage points and 2.6 percentage points spacing and traditional methods of contraception respectively. The Muslims women from Assam (3.4%), Uttar Pradesh (4.4%) and Bihar (8.3%) reported low use of limiting contraceptive methods as compared to other Muslim populated States. The highest difference in the limiting method was observed in Bihar (21 percentage points) followed by West Bengal (19 percentage points) between Muslim and Non-Muslim. The decomposition model found educational attainment level as the significant explaining factor for differentiating contraceptive utilization among Muslims and Non-Muslims. Conclusion: The study concluded that the significant inequalities exist among Muslims and Non-Muslims concerning the current use of limiting methods. The policy design and programmes should take into account the uneducated women to address the inequalities in the contraceptive use.