Men in women’s health care in India: how far man’s supportive stance makes a difference

Aparajita Chattopadhyay, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Chiman Sinha, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Men’s supportive stance is an essential component for making women’s world better. There has been a growing debate among policy makers and researchers on the role of involving male in maternal health program. Male involvement in maternal health is a big challenge in a country like India where the society is male driven. The paper aims to look into the variations and determinants of maternal health care utilization in India and three demographically and socio-economically varied states namely Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra by husband’s knowledge, attitude, and behavior and gender violence culling data from couple’s information provided by the National Family Health Survey III (2004-05). Women’s ANC visit, safe delivery and freedom in health care decision are looked into by applying descriptive statistics and multivariate models. Men's knowledge and participation in maternal health care and positive gender attitude definitely enhances women’s utilization of health care and related decision making.