India is experiencing a decline in fertility, but this change is uneven across regions. Some districts continue to experience very high birth rates. To address this issue, the Government of India introduced Mission Parivar Vikas (MPV) to promote modern contraceptive use and family planning awareness in high fertility districts. This study examines changes in modern contraceptive use in MPV and non-MPV districts and identifies socio-demographic factors associated with contraceptive use among married women. Target respondents in this study were 239,466 (NFHS-4) and 224,238 (NFHS-5) married women aged 15–49 years. Weighted descriptive statistics were used to examine changes in contraceptive use, and separate binary logistic regression models were applied to assess factors associated with modern contraceptive use. Findings indicate that MPV districts have experienced progress, but it is far from expectations. In MPV districts current mCPR (modern contraceptive prevalence rate) is 48.7% which was 33.3% in preceding survey. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan performed well in increasing mCPR, whereas Uttar Pradesh lags behind among major states. Age, wealth status, education and exposure to mass media were significantly associated with higher odds of modern contraceptive use among the respondents. Mission Parivar Vikas was introduced to strengthen family planning services in selected high-fertility districts but current status shows a significant gap between MPV andnon-MPV districts within the same states. Although some improvement is visible, stronger efforts are needed to implement the programme more effectively. The study suggests that additional initiatives are required to address the unmet need for contraception in backward districts.
Shit et al. (Sat,) studied this question.