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SummaryExamining waiting time to birth among newlywed couples is likely to provide insights into the desire for spacing births among newlywed husbands and wives. Data from the Indian National Family Health Survey of 2005–06 are used to examine the desired waiting time (DWT) to birth among newlywed couples. The dependent variable is spousal concordance on desired waiting times. Overall 65% of couples have concordant desired waiting times. Among discordant couples, wives were more likely to want to wait longer than their husbands. Couples from richer wealth quintiles were more likely than couples from the poorest quintile to have concordant desired waiting times. Muslims were less likely than Hindus to have concordant desires. There is a need for spacing contraceptive methods among newlyweds in India. This may have implications for the Indian Family Planning Programme, which to date has largely focused on sterilization. Programmes need to include newlywed husbands to promote use of spacing methods.

SummaryThe present paper examines the association between the type of household and maternal health in India using data from the National Family Health Survey 1998–99. The indicators of maternal health used in the analysis are contraceptive use, visit to obtain antenatal care in the first trimester, safe delivery and nutritional status of women measured in terms of body mass index (BMI). Binary and multinomial logistic regressions are used to establish associations. The type of household is coded into three categories, viz. nuclear household, joint household with in-laws and joint household without in-laws. The other independent variables used in the analysis are age, children ever born, work status, education of women, religion, caste, standard of living, exposure to mass media, women's autonomy and presence of others at the time of interview. The findings clearly suggest that type of household is significantly associated with the utilization of the above-mentioned services that positively affect maternal health. Women in nuclear households are more likely to utilize these services compared with women in joint households. However, an association between type of household and BMI was not found.

Interventions that include men during pregnancy and childbirth have shown to yield positive health benefits to women and their children. Most previous studies in India examined male involvement during pregnancy and childbirth using qualitative data. In order to gain a quantitative insight on the subject, primary data collected from men aged 15–54 from rural Ahmadnagar in India is used to examine men's involvement during pregnancy and child birth. The indicators of men's involvement are designed to measure presence of men during antenatal visits and child birth, type of assistance provided during pregnancy, and men's involvement in deciding the place of delivery and the person to conduct the delivery. This study, for the first time, uses a measure of social network and gender role attitudes in explaining men's involvement during pregnancy and child birth in India. The results reveal that a substantial proportion of men are involved during pregnancy and child birth in rural Ahmadnagar. Gender role attitudes and social network are important predictors of men's involvement during pregnancy and child birth.

We use data from the Census of India, Sample Registration System (SRS), National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), Rapid Household Survey (RHS-RCH) and District Level Household Survey (DLHS-RCH) to examine the socio-economic and demographic profile of Jharkhand. Data from various censuses are employed to study the changes in the socio-economic and demographic profile of Jharkhand since independence. All the districts that existed in the Census of 2001 are constructed backwards since 1961 using the information available in various census publications. The paper provides data for 18 districts of Jharkhand since 1961. The data from SRS, NFHS, RHS-RCH and DLHS-RCH are used to understand the trends in fertility, mortality and health service utilisation indicators. We find some improvement in the socio-economic condition of the people of Jharkhand over the past five decades. Fertility and mortality rates are found to be quite high in the state. The utilisation of health services is found to be very low in the districts of Jharkhand. The improvement in utilisation of health services for the Scheduled Tribes is found to be least among the various caste groups in the state. Wide variations exist in almost all the indicators among the districts of Jharkhand.

Data from the District Level Household Survey (2002) conducted by the Reproductive and Child Health Project in India has been used to examine the impact of utilization of antenatal care services on improvement in maternal health in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, India. Multilevel analysis shows that after controlling for other socioeconomic and demographic factors, utilization of antenatal care services may lead to the utilization of other maternal health related services such as institutional delivery, delivery assisted by trained professionals, seeking advice for pregnancy complications, and seeking advice for post-delivery complications. There is strong clustering of utilization of services within the primary sampling units (i.e. villages) and districts.