To use or not to use: Exploring factors influencing the uptake of modern contraceptives in urban informal settlements of Mumbai.

Rapid urbanization and a high unmet need for family planning in urban informal settlements point to the significance of identifying gaps that exist in the path of voluntary uptake of contraceptives. We undertook this study to better understand the perspectives related to family planning among women living in informal settlements of Mumbai. We used a mixed-methods approach, including a cross-sectional survey with 1407 married women of reproductive age and face-to-face in-depth interviews with 22 women, both users and non-users of modern contraceptives.

Community resource centres to improve the health of women and children in informal settlements in Mumbai: a cluster-randomised, controlled trial.

Background: Around 105 million people in India will be living in informal settlements by 2017. We investigated the effects of local resource centres delivering integrated activities to improve women's and children's health in urban informal settlements.

Methods: In a cluster-randomised controlled trial in 40 clusters, each containing around 600 households, 20 were randomly allocated to have a resource centre (intervention group) and 20 no centre (control group).