Men in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh have more sexual partners

HYDERABAD: Women were found to have more lifetime sexual partners than men in 11 states and union territories, but the two Telugu states have defied the national trend.

According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), men were found to have more sexual partners in their lifetime than women in both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In 707 districts across the country, 1.1 lakh women and one lakh men took part in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) survey between 2019 and 2021.

The average lifetime sexual partner count for women in Telangana is 1.7, while the figure is 3.0 for men, according to the survey. In Andhra Pradesh, women and men had 1.4 and 4.7 partners, respectively. After Meghalaya (9.6) and Sikkim, the figure of 4.7 for men in AP is joint third highest in the nation (7.1).

In 11 states and UTs, women typically have more sex partners than men, but the NFHS data shows that males were significantly more likely to have intercourse with someone who wasn't their husband or living companion, with a rate of 4 per cent compared to women's 0.5 per cent.

 These 11 states and UTs — Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu — are the ones where women were found to have more sexual partners than men. In Telangana, 0.4 per cent of the women polled reported having two or more partners in the previous year, compared to 2.1 per cent of the men.

The data for the report was gathered by 1,061 field teams. Two health investigators, two female interviewers, one male interviewer, a driver, and three female interviewees made up each team. Female and male interviewers were assigned to interview respondents of the same sex.