Fertility Differentials: The identification of the groups of higher fertility, along with the underlying causes, could be of great utility from the point of view of the family planning programme. The different variables and their effect on fertility are discussed briefly as under:
- Fertility and Religion: Fertility is different among different religions in India.The operating force behind religious differentials affecting fertility to be the different cultural values by different religious teachings. The value system attached to various factors (i.e., widow remarriage, abstinence and religious purity, adopting of mechanical contraceptives and so on) in different religions can be regarded as responsible for fertility differentials to a certain extent. Generally fertility among Muslims has been observed to be higher than among Hindus in India. Different studies had revealed different rates of fertility among different religions in India. According to Driver, the fertility of different religions in Central India was: Muslims (4.6), Hindus 14.5), Buddhists (4.9), other religions (4.1) and average for all castes (4.1)’ This was also proved by Mukerjee and Singh that the fertility of Muslims (3.7) was high, followed by Hindus (3.4), Sikhs (2,8),Christians (2.7)and others (2.7). According to Social Survey conducted in Kanpur in 1954-55 the fertility rate was high among Muslims (8.021) and Hindus (7.037). Table -3 shows a higher rate of fertility song Muslims (TFR: 4.48). The next place is occupied by Hindus (TFR: 3.77) followed by Sikhs (TFR: 3.45) and Christians (TFR: 2.79) (shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in)
- Education and Fertility: The educational status of the husband and wife has a significant association with the fertility of the couple. Several studies have pointed out an inverse correlation between education and fertility i.e., fertility rate decreases with education. According to NFHS-2, Illiterates are having higher fertility (3.47) than all the succeeding higher education levels .
- Age at Marriage: In the middle ages, female age at marriage was very low because there was a common belief that it was religiously desirable that the girl should be married before attaining puberty. In less developed countries the average age at marriage is going up but in developed countries it is going down by a few years . Age at marriage is different for various caste groups in India, There are differences among sub castes of a major caste, but in view of the fact that these differences are minor as against differences among major caste, such a, a broad classification is adequate to give a rough indication of differences by caste. The females of the depressed castes have the lowest mean age at marriage, followed by the Brahmins, the warrior castes, and the trading castes. The difference between the depressed caste females and Brahman females is roughly one year. In table-6, we can observe that when compared with others, marriages amongst scheduled castes takes place at an early age especially amongst those residing in rural areas. Scheduled tribes occupied second place after scheduled castes regarding age at marriage. Other groups like non SC/ST groups occupy the last place and especially in urban areas, the marriages below 18 are the least .
- Substantial rural urban differences have been observed in the mean at marriage. The table -7 shows the differentials from 1961 to 1994. During this period a difference of 1.1 to 2.5 years was observed between rural and urban females. Generally urban atmosphere delays the marriage due to higher education, better occupation and attitude towards marriage. Besides, there is the practice of early and child marriages in rural areas since the people feel marriage as a burden and responsibility of the parents .
Trends of Fertility
As per the Census Analysis (2006), the following measures were obtained as a fertility measure
[Crude Birth Rate (CBR): It is the number of births in a given year per thousand of the population in the same year. The denominator is usually the mid-year population. It is a crude measure because not all persons in the population are at the risk of giving birth. ]
The Decline in Crude Birth Rate from 29.5 in 1991 to 22.5 in 2009. The CBR is higher (24.1) in rural areas as compared to urban areas (18.3). Based on National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2: for the period of three years viz 1996-98) the CBR was 24.8 births per 1,000 population. The CBR is 20.9 in urban areas and 26.2 in rural areas; The CBR fell from 28.7 to 24.8 between National Family Health Survey (NFHS-I: 1990-92) to National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2:1996-98) a decline of 14 per cent has been observed in this period. But the NFHS-2 estimate is below the estimates of SRS by 2.3 points in 1991.
The overall census estimate for 1994- 2001 the birth rate is 25.9 per cent, So the CBR has declined by approximately 38 percent over the period 1951-2001 and by 47 per cent over the century long period of 1901-2001. Prior to 1956, the administrative units or states are not clearly demarcated. According to the available estimates, birth rates can be observed on the basis of major regions of the country. During 1911-1921 decade itself, the birth rate was the highest (50.0) in the region of north-eastern zone. The birthrate varied from 40 to 45 excluding Madras Presidency in the Southern region. During the next decade, the birthrate declined slowly in all the other regions except Assam, Bombay Presidency and Madras Presidency. The same trend Continued till 1951-61 in most of the regions .
Patterns in Fertility: A global View
Fertility patterns in the world have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Global fertility has reached unprecedented low levels, yet stark differences persist in child bearing patterns across countries and regions. The population and development implications of these diverse fertility patterns are directly relevant for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and policy making and planning in all countries (United Nations, 2015).
According to the results of the 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects, total fertility is now 2.5 children per woman globally. This global average masks wide regional differences. Africa remains the region with the highest fertility at 4.7 children per woman. Europe has the lowest fertility of 1.6 children per woman. Both Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have total fertility of 2.2 children per woman, closely followed by Oceania with 2.4 children per woman. Middle and Western Africa stand out as having particularly high fertility of over five children per woman. Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe have very low fertility at fewer than 1.6 children per woman. Today, 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries with low levels of fertility, where women have
fewer than 2.1 children on average. Low-fertility countries now include all of Europe and Northern America, as well as many countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. Another 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in “intermediate fertility” countries that have already experienced substantial fertility declines and where women have on average between 2.1 and 5 children. The remaining 8 per cent of the world’s population lives in “high-fertility” countries that have experienced only limited fertility decline to date. In these countries the average woman has five or more children over her lifetime. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. The net reproduction rate is the
average number of daughters that would be born to a woman taking into account the prevailing levels of fertility, female mortality and the sex ratio at birth. When the net reproduction rate is one, each woman is exactly replacing herself with one surviving daughter and this implies that fertility is at replacement level.
Where more boys than expected are born compared with girls, the net reproduction rate will be lower than expected for a given fertility rate and the long-term population growth rate will be lower as a result. This is the case in many countries in Asia. Globally, the net reproduction rate is 1.1 surviving daughters per woman. In all regions in the world, the net reproduction rate is at or below this level, except for Africa, where the net reproduction rate is 1.9. This means that, on average, each African mother is replacing herself with nearly two daughters, which leads to fast population growth. The trend in adolescent fertility has been downward in all regions but there are very sharp differences in levels and trends. Africa has the highest adolescent birth rate and the decline over time has been slow. High adolescent fertility also persists in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, the greater proportional decline of childbearing of women at older ages has led to a decreasing mean age at childbearing. In Europe and Northern America, where fertility was already relatively low by 1970-1975, the postponement of childbearing has led to an increasing mean age at childbearing. At lower levels of fertility, the differences in the age distribution of births tend to be larger. For example, both India and Libya have total fertility of 2.5 children per woman. However, more than three in four of all births in India are to women under the age of 30 (78 per cent) compared with only about one in three births in Libya i.e. 34 per cent (United Nations, 2015).
Alternate Source:
Differential Fertility
It has been observed that the levels and patterns of fertility vary considerably in various sub-groups of the same population. These sub-groups may be based on residence (urban or rural), social and economic status, educational attainment, occupation, income, size of land-holding, religion, caste, race, etc. A study of differential fertility is useful in identifing the factors determining fertility (Asha and Tara, 2006, pp.3 16-323).
Different factors are responsible for fertility differentials among different groups within a particular country or society. These differentials can be studied under two broad categories.
- i) Regional differences in fertility. These include: a) Rural-urban differences in fertility, and b) Fertility differential due to ecological or geographical factor.
- ii) Fertility differentials based on socio-economic factors. These include: a) educational attainment and fertility; b) economic status and fertility; c) occupation of the husband and fertility; d) employment of women and fertility; e) religion, caste, race and fertility; f) demographic factors such as the age and sex structure of the population and fertility, and so on.
Regional Differences in Fertility
Regional differences in fertility are presented as follows.
Rural-urban Residence and Fertility: Numerous studies have been conducted on fertility differential according to rural-urban residence. It has been found that the fertility of those residing in cities was lower than that of rural residents; and these differentials were more or less stable. However when national birth rates declined the fertility differentials widened in a more pronounced manner among urban upper classes than among other classes.
In India, the rural-urban fertility differentials in 1951 were relatively smaller as a result of the gradual narrowing down of these differentials which had begun since 1931. After 1951, urban fertility was more or less consistently lower than rural fertility in most of the States in India. These differentials, however, have become more pronounced in recent times. The national sample survey and the sample registration schemes in India have consistently shown the rural crude birth rates to be higher than the urban crude birth rates .
Further, the total fertility rates for rural and urban areas were 5.8 and 4.3 respectively in 1972. The total marital fertility rate was also higher for rural areas (6.8) than for urban areas (6.0). In fact, each fertility index shows that, in 1972, rural fertility was unambiguously higher than urban fertility. These rural-urban differences also vary from State to State even at a point of time depending upon geographical and ecological factors.
Fertility Differentials based on Socio-economic Factors
Socio-economic factors that cause differential fertility include the following.
EducationalAttainment and Fertility: The educational attainment of couples have very strong bearing on the number of children born. Educational attainment, especially of women, is one of the indicators of modernization and the status of women in society. In low fertility countries, historically the relationship between fertility and the educational attainment of the wife has been negative, in the sense that the higher the educational level the lower was the family size (Asha and Tara, 2006, p.320).
In the high fertility countries, such as Egypt, Taiwan and Chile (Greater Santiago) a distinct negative relationship has been observed between the educational attainment of the woman and the number of children born to her. In a high fertility country like India also, in Bangalore City, women with high school or college education were found to have a smaller family than those with a lower educational attainment.
The sixteenth round of the National Sample Survey (1960-61 urban areas) also brought out a clear-cut relationship between the educational attainment of the married urban woman and her completed family size. It was observed that the complete average family size was 6.10,6.32 and 6.25 respectively for the illiterate, for those whose education did not go beyond the primary school level, and for those who had completed their primary school education.
For those who had the secondary school education or higher education (above secondary school) the average family size was 4.25 and 2.62 respectively. Two Indian studies have established a distinct relationship between the education of the woman and fertility. The first study was conducted in the metropolitan city of Greater Bombay in 1966 (J. R. Rele, 1972) and the second in Panaji, Goa, in 1969 (Asha and Rama Rao, Unpublished). A negative association between the educational attainment of currently married women and fertility was observed in Grater Bombay; and this association was sharp and consistent for each age-group.
The age distribution of all currently married women of Panaji and suburbs was taken as the standard