Marked Preference for Female Sterilization in a Semirural Squatter Settlement

The following article analyzes the reasons very poor semirural women in South India choose sterilization as a means of birth control and illustrates the centrality of economic factors in low-income women's family planning decisions.

Abstract

The following article analyzes the reasons very poor semirural women in South India choose sterilization as a means of birth control. The women, who work for minimal wages in a narrowing job market and whose children have little hope for jobs or land marriages, are choosing to be sterilized after two or three births. Among their limited range of contraceptive choices, female sterilization in the nearby hospital where women go for deliveries and abortion is perceived by them to be the most advantageous in terms of the cost of medicines and transportation and time away from jobs. The article illustrates the centrality of economic factors in low-income women's family planning decisions.