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Socio-demographic characteristics of 5846 women undergoing sterilization in hospitals and 1752 women undergoing sterilization in camps in India are analyzed. The average age of women accepting sterilization was 29.8 years; the mean number of living children was 4.2. Women sterilized in hospitals were of significantly higher age and parity than those sterilized in camps. The mean parity for all women was 4.6. A steep increase in median parity was observed with increasing age in both hospitals and camps. The study indicates that, while the level of education may affect acceptance of sterilization, there is no minimum level of education necessary for its acceptance. Most of the women in the study were not gainfully employed. As expected most of the women were Hindus. Muslims were underrepresented in the hospital series; in camps, however, Muslims showed a much higher rate of acceptance of sterilization. The rate of pregnancy wastage was significantly higher in the hospital and the child loss rate was significantly higher for the camp cases. While the rate of previous abortions was higher for low parity women, the child loss rate was higher for high parity women. The child loss parity ratio was significantly higher for the camps than for the hospital cases. The vast majority of women in both hospitals and camps reported no previous contraceptive practice. Sterilization appears to have been the method of choice for most of these women.