This article presents in-depth ethnographic evidence of women’s lived experience of arranged marriages and love marriages, their agency and constraints in a working class neighbor hood of New Delhi.

Reproductive health [1] practices among Muslim women in India have been little researched perhaps because of the widespread notion regarding the tight Islamic control over sexual behaviour and the sanctions against contraceptive use.

India is a signatory to the Alma Ata declaration and has committed herself to achieving "Health for All by the Year 2000". Since then, a lot of planning, effort and public expenditure has been devoted to improving the health of the people both in rural and urban areas of the country.

Acceptance and sustained use of family planning especially of modern spacing methods have generally been low in developing countries particularly in India. The use rate for modern spacing methods was only 6 per cent among the eligible couples in India in 1992 (IIPS, 1995).

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the scope and significance of gynaecological problems experienced by poor women in developing countries.