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Article History

Received: 15 July 2024

Accepted: 20 June 2025

First Online: 4 August 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, provided the ethical approval for the NFHS-5 (2019–21). The ICF International Review Board (IRB) oversaw the survey and gave ethical approval too. The respondents provided signed consent after being fully informed about the survey’s purpose and procedures. Only interviews were done after obtaining proper consent from each participant. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program’s website hosts the NFHS-5, an anonymous dataset that is made available to the public and cannot be used to identify the survey respondents. All the research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. We have used an annonymized version of the dataset which does not require prior ethical approval.