Can Indian Men Become More Gender-Equitable in their Approach to Family Planning?

In 2016, a sexual health awareness campaigner from peri-urban Delhi spoke to a small crowd about a young friend who was her motivation. The friend popped 10 or more iPills to end an accidental pregnancy, which led to profuse bleeding, hospitalization and weeks of trauma.

Two things stood out starkly in that account — a) the friend had sparse knowledge of how contraceptive methods worked, and b) her male partner, who convinced her to take the pills, was equally ignorant and helpless.

It isn’t new that knowledge on family planning and contraceptive methods is stigmatized and shared inconsistently. FP experts stress that not addressing male partners and husbands on the issue is further detrimental, given the direct and indirect control they exercise over their female partner’s bodies, choices and trade-offs. Further, in India government schemes and development programs on family planning and birth spacing have targeted married women, who are spoken to in secrecy — in silos — while men are generally kept at bay. Some men choose voluntarily to steer clear of the subject; others, while recognising their own active role, struggle to get a hold of contraceptives (and then dispose of the packaging). This, mostly for the fear of being found out by members of their families or community.

Strategic attempts at delivering behaviour change communication to men on family planning are few and far between, and run the big risk of reinforcing gender stereotypes. For example, a man who is motivated by an SBCC campaign to procure contraceptive methods can and likely will still control which method is acquired, how, when and at what frequency. Male engagement strategies still neglect the question of the woman’s choice and articulation of her sexual (and) health needs.

At Vihara, we strongly believe that a potential solution is to craft approaches to male engagement that are gender equitable by design. Findings from field scenarios, gathered by our partners at the International Centre for Research on Women as well as others experts, tell us that young men from these target groups are keen to talk and about the larger issues of sex, gender roles, intimacy, masculinity, and the role they play in the making of a happy couple. As a proven socio-cultural entry point to discussions on health in other third world contexts, this approach could be very useful to broaching and designing gender equitable SOPs in India.

That said, more work needs to be done on the pain points that affect gender dynamics in family planning and decision-making. Lookout for more on the same, in this space.