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Article History

Received: 3 October 2025

Accepted: 3 March 2026

First Online: 10 March 2026

Declarations

:

: This study is a retrospective study that used secondary data that is publicly available, i.e., the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) dataset. The NFHS is the Indian version of the Demographic Health Survey (DHS), conducted and guided by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India. The NFHS obtained prior ethical approval from all participants. Hence, no additional ethical approval was required for this study. Informed consent of all participants regarding participation has been taken during the survey. Hence, no additional consent was required for this study.

: All participants provided written informed consent regarding use and publication of anonymized data at the time of the survey.

: The authors declare no competing interests.