Motivation and fertility control behaviour in Pakistan

Using data from the Population, Labor Force, and Migration (PLM) Survey of 1979-80, this paper examines the component of potential motivation for fertility limitation among Pakistani married women and then determines what factor are important in explaining the contraceptive use differentials among the potentially motivated subgroup of women. The analysis is conducted using logit regression models. The findings show that, among women wanting no additional children, a substantial proportion is reluctant to adopt fertility control behavior, confirming the existence of latent demand for contraception in all strata. A majority of those women report no exposure to the program or no contact with a family planning worker, and a large majority of those who have had exposure or have been contacted do not report contraceptive use, indicating a considerable shortfall of the program. Among the urban women wanting no more children, the important factors affecting contracepting use positively are education (both primary and secondary), household income, living in a nuclear family, exposure to the program, and contact with a family planning worker, for rural women, only nuclear family living and the program factors are significant in promoting contraceptive use. The suggestions likely to increase contraceptive prevalence are, first, to reach those women who have the potential motivation for contraception, and, second, to increase the quality and sources of the motivation efforts of the program to crystallize the latent demand among those who need it.