Unintended pregnancies in India high: report

One in five Indian women in reproductive age do not want to get pregnant but have no access to modern contraception, and the figure rises to one in four in the 15-19 year age-group, a global report has said.

India also has a very high rate of female sterlisation as the most preferred tool of family planning and it alone accounts for 65.7 per cent of all contraceptions compared to a measly 2 per cent of male sterlisation.

The latest report of Family Planning 2020, a global partnership of several countries including India and supported by the UN, said the number of unintended pregnancies in India was 45.71 lakhs in 2013, an improvement from 46.16 lakhs in 2012.

India also succeeded in averting more numbers of unintended pregnancies by expending the use of contraception.

It averted 3.61 crore unintended pregnancies in 2013 against 3.52 crore in 2012, the report has said.

The percentage of women whose need of modern contraception was met rose to 66 per cent last year from 65 per cent a year before. The figure in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was over 70 per cent.

"India and Nepal have highest unmet need. Unmet need is higher in adolescent girls than all women," it said.

India has also moved to a lower growth in modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR), the report noted and highlighted that the official family planning expenditure saw no increase in 2013.

The mCPR in India rose to 38.7 in 2013 from 38.2 in the preceding year and there were 30 lakh additional users for modern contraception.

In south Asia, India ranks higher that Pakistan and Nepal but Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have done better on this scale, said the report, in which Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also a partner.