Empower Indian Women's Reproductive Health
Women’s reproductive health plays an important role in the overall health of a population and future labor force. Poor reproductive health and inadequate maternal care result in poor birth outcomes (AbouZahr, 1999). Bandyopadhyay and MacPherson (1999) mentioned that about 10% of infants die before they are 1 year old in India and other developing counties. In addtion, the maternal mortality rate in India is one of the highest in the world. Therefore, improving women’s reproductive health has become an increasingly important issue in India.
Studies on reproductive health generally focus on the effects of either social or economic factors (Pillai & Gupta, 2006). The International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 brought in the concepts of reproductive choice (Foley, 2007). But studies that synthesized the effects of socioeconomic as well as choice variables on reproductive health are still limited. This study examined the effects of socioeconomic and choice variables on women’s reproductive health. This study hypothesized that both social and economic factors have significant influence on women’s reproductive health in India.
Methods:
This study utilized the India Human Development Survey I (IHDS-I 2004-2005) to test the effects of socioeconomic and choices factors on women’s reproductive health. The data were selected from women between the ages of 15 and 49, a total of 33,481 cases were included in this study. There are six independent variables (spousal communication, social capital, income, education, autonomy, and accessibility), one control variable (region), and a dependent variable (reproductive health) in this study. Descriptive analysis and path analysis were used. In order to deal with missing data, the mean of each age group was assigned to the missing values in each variable.
Results:
The path analysis results show that both social and economic factors have significant influence on women’s reproductive health except income (p= .163). The direct effect of spousal communication on autonomy is .202 and on accessibility is .024. The total indirect effect of spousal communication on reproductive health through autonomy and accessibility is .022. The direct effect of social capital on autonomy is .028 and on accessibility is .011. The total indirect effect of social capital on reproductive health through autonomy and accessibility is .004 points. In addition, the direct effect of education on reproductive health is .137; the direct effect of autonomy on reproductive health is .087; and the direct effect of accessibility on reproductive health is .181.
Conclusions and Implications:
For social work practice, social workers can empower women to make their own reproductive choices by providing social services and resources. At the policy level, social workers can advocate for women’s human rights. For future study, researchers should apply this research model to the United States. Even though the Indian cultural context is different from United States, conditions of poverty and discrimination of populations are similar. Given the similarity of structural condition between India and the United States, this study results can still benefit the minority and oppressed population in the United States.