- Contraception is a personal choice. Working and educated women are often well versed with various methods of contraception but the woman residing in shanty towns, rural areas or semi urban areas are either unfamiliar of these methods or if familiar , still hesitate to use them correctly. Contraception is a vital component for a woman’s health as a woman who can plan the frequency andinterval of childbirths can easily rule her home and workplace more efficiently and confidently. Historically, various contraceptive methods and practices have been used throughout the world and woman had little choice in planning pregnancies.1When we look upon the history of birth control we come across a key figure Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), she was educated as a nurse, well known and highly controversial proponent of contraception. She was credited with developing the term “Birth control”2 . When we look at Indian experience about birth control, in 1952 the family planning program was the first national level program with focus on population stabilization. In 2000 – the national population policy – redefined the program as a medium of intervention for promoting reproductive and child health. The family planning program focuses on assuring complete knowledge and access to reproductive rights and services and enables women and men both to make individual reproductive choice. Over the year the program has expanded to reach every nook and corner of the country and has penetrated into primary health centers and sub centers in rural areas, urban family welfare centers. Coverage of health care with an improved quality has declined the total fertility rate and growth rate across the nation. Rajasthan has witnessed a fall of 0.8 in TFR as it was 3.2 as per national family health survey (NFHS-III) and 2.4 as per NFHS IV. The past few years have seen a paradigm shift in family planning program , the focus of the program is towards meeting the unmet need of contraception and increasing the use of modern contraceptives thus reducing the unintended and mistimed pregnancy which is directly linked to reducing maternal and child mortality across the nation.3 Population stabilization is an essential component for the development of a nation, despite of government’s diligent efforts the acceptance of these methods is still low, through this study we surveyed the women residing in rural areas, semi-urban areas and shanty towns to know their contraceptive knowledge and practices.