Kathmandu: Difference between revisions

In Nepal, you can purchase oral contraception (birth control pills) without a prescription.<ref>[http://ocsotc.org/wp-content/uploads/worldmap/worldmap.html Global Oral Contraception Availability]</ref> <ref>[http://freethepill.org/where-on-earth/ Free the Pill: Where on Earth?]</ref> According to a 2015 report, it's estimated that 52.4% of Nepali women (who are of reproductive age and married or in unions) use some form of contraception, including traditional methods, and 23.9% have unmet family planning needs. The most common forms of contraception were female sterilization (18.3%), injectables (13.2%), birth control pills (4.8%), male sterilization (4.8%) and withdrawal, also known as the "pull-out method" (3.9%). It was found that only 3.8% of Nepali women used condoms as their primary form of contraception. Meanwhile, there was very low usage of IUDs (1.7%) and contraceptive implants (1.3%).<ref>[http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/family/trendsContraceptiveUse2015Report.pdf Trends in Contraceptive Use Worldwide 2015]</ref>

For Nepalese women, it's common get married at a young age, often in the teen or adolescent years. For Hindu women, it's common to have an arranged marriage, though "love marriages" are becoming increasingly common. In these arrangements, many women will have their first child at a young age. However, there are NGOs and local organizations in Nepal, which distribute contraceptives and aim to reduce child pregnancy. According to some sources, there isn't an overwhelmingly negative stigma toward contraception in Nepal, and it's taken by many married women. Yet it should also be noted that Nepal is still very much a patriarchal society, where married women live in the house of their husbands and must often follow the rules dictated by their mother-in-laws, husbands and other men in their lives, so not all women have the full agency or autonomy to make such choices on their own.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/jul/07/zoe-williams-nepal-contraception-pregnancy Zoe Williams: how contraception is rocking Nepalese society]</ref>