SLOW PACE OF FERTILITY DECLINE IN BIHAR: AN EXAMINATION OF UNMET NEED

Contraceptive prevalence rate is far behind in Bihar in comparison to national average. Unmet need of family planning is high in Bihar against national average. Population control in a situation of low prevalence of contraceptive use and high unmet need is the biggest challenge for Bihar. The two broad objectives of the study are; to examine the socio-economic, demographic and cultural factors affecting unmet need of family planning and; to evaluate the government policies and programmes in relation to unmet need in Bihar. Secondary sources data from Annual Health Survey, Census, NFHS and SRS has been used. Quantitative methods like univariate, and multi variate analysis has been done along with some cartographic techniques. The result reveals that women's educational level, their age at marriage and employment status play positive role in society in terms of obtaining desired result in demographic goals. The community level participation is must in present scenario to achieve better result as lots of community has cultural issues which make obstacles in using family planning measures. Providing more incentives and counseling of beneficiaries will helpful in promotion of contraceptive use. The districts like Siwan, Gopalganj, Kishanganj, Katihar, Araria need special attention as these districts have highest unmet need for family planning in terms of spacing as well as limiting.