This study explores poor urban working class women's sexual and birth control experiences within the context of income allocation and control in the household. The nature of women's agency in sexual and birth control domains and their forms of societal subordination as a gender and class are examined in the process. The study involves 100 respondents selected through a purposive non-random sampling design from fifteen slums in Calcutta, India. Cross-sectional data is collected from structured and unstructured open-ended interviews, observation of slum communities and document reviews. Methods include descriptive and correlational analysis of quantitative data and case-historical analysis of qualitative data. The results generated in the study (1) elucidate how proportional differences in household income contribution of the women and their husbands are linked to the nature of sexual and birth control negotiations in the household, (2) show how impoverished women's household gender and material resource dynamics are linked to processes of gender and class formation in Indian society and, (3) suggest innovative population responsive methods sensitized to women's household contexts and geared to enhance women's control over reproduction that can be used in family planning policies