Marriage and Fertility in Rural Nepal: A Study of the Chepangs in Pida VDC, Dhading

Abstract

The study on the “Marriage and Fertility in Rural Nepal: A Study of the Chepangs in PidaVDC, Dhading” was carried out by collecting primary data from the Chepang community.The main objectives of this study were toidentify the factors affecting fertility behaviouramong the Chepangs, to examine thepattern of fertilityin the Chepangcommunity and toassesstheimpact of demographic and socio-economic variables on fertilityofthe Chepangs. The total sample population of the Chepangs was 611 at the time of survey. In the sex ratio,the number of male per 100, female was found to be 99.2 is lower than the national level(99.8). Mean age at marriage of the womenwas found to be16.5years is lower than thenational (19.5). The relationship between fertility and selected socio-economic and demographic variableswere examined by using frequency tables, standard deviation, mean CEB and cross tables.An adjusted mean of the CEB was computed by controlling the selected independentvariables where CEB was used as an indicator of fertility behaviour. The overall meannumber of children ever born was found to be3.918. The mean number of CEB was found toincrease with the increasing age of mother and desire for mean additional children was foundto be decreased with increasing age of mother. The highest mean CEB was found to be 7.0for women in age group 40-49 years and the highest mean number of children additionallydesired by respondents was found in age group 15-19 (2.636). The average desired familysize of the Chepangswas 3.26 in a family. Out of the total respondents, about 35.7 percentdesired additionalchild in which more than 22 percent desired sons and less than 14 percentdesired daughter. The nature and strength of relationship between selected variables and the number of CEBwere analyzed using frequency and cross tables. The number of CEB was inversely relatedwith women’s education and occupation and husband’s occupation. In the study area,contraceptive use of respondents was positively associated with the mean CEB of theChepangs.It is due to one of the major cause that the Chepangs had been used contraceptionafter having more than three children.