Introduction: Contraception has been a single most important intervention to reduce the burden of unwanted pregnancy. Understanding the attitude and knowledge of the women towards contraception, helps in improving their acceptance. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire based cross sectional study was conducted over a period of 6 months to assess the contraceptive knowledge and practice in the rural women of Uttar Pradesh. A total of 500 currently married rural women of 15-45 years of age were interviewed. Results: 98% of women knew about condoms but it was found to be the method of choice in only 10.4% of women. 82% were aware about Copper -T but only 8% were practicing it. 61% had knowledge about OCP’s and 8.6% were practicing it. 62% of women knew about injectable contraceptives but only 8.6% were using it. The most common source of information was television and media (65%). Wish for having more children, fear of side effects, lack of awareness about benefits of spacing and limiting the births, lack of support from husband and family, lack of awareness about contraceptive methods were the various reasons for not using contraception. Conclusions: While there is good contraceptive awareness in rural Uttar Pradesh, but this is not matched with contraceptive prevalence and prospects for improvement exist. Imparting knowledge to couples as well as to their parents and society  about the health benefits of spacing and limiting number of children can play an important role in reducing maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. 

Keywords: Acceptance, Awareness, Contraceptive method, Practices, Knowledge