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Article History

Received: 25 April 2026

Accepted: 6 August 2026

First Online: 17 August 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The National Family Health Survey 5 was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures and survey protocols involving the study participants were reviewed and approved by the IIPS Institutional Review Board and the ICF Institutional Review Board (Approval numbers IRB/IRB00010030 and ICF IRB FWA00000845). Written/verbal informed consent (or thumbprint from illiterate participants) was obtained from all participants involved. Verbal consent was witnessed and formally recorded. The confidentiality and anonymity of the names, addresses and locations of the study participants were kept by the data source.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Competing interests: The author(s) declare no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.