SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS OF MARRIED WOMEN’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

In Pakistan, over 20,000 women die each year due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth and most can beattributed to delays in accessing RH facilities. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are important predictors of practice of RHR and of the type of RH-Methods practiced. Women with more schooling may be more comfortable interacting with medical personnel and may have better access to sources of modern birth control than women who have little education. The present study was designed to know the socio- demographic characteristics of the respondents and to find out the relationship between respondent’s socio- demographic factors and their attitude towards reproductive health rights. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select the women of age 15 – 49 years having at least one child. A sample of 700 married women was interviewed by a well designed interviewing schedule from three districts of Punjab. Uni-variate and bi-variate analysis demonstrate that there was a strong and positive association between socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and the practice of RHR. Similarly, the value of Chi-Square, Somers’d, and Gamma showed a significant and positive association between the women’s socio-economic status and practice of RHR. The study proposed that women should be empowered by motivating and providing them employment opportunities.