Fertility Behaviours of Dalit Community (A case Study of Parbatipur VDC, Manipur Chitwan))

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to examine the ''Fertility Behaviour ofDalit Community: A Case Study in Parbatipur VDC,Manipur, Chitwan''in terms of selecteddemographic and socio-economic variables. Thestudy sample included 127 ever married women of reproductive agesfrom 127 households with 843 entire family members. Household andindividual levelinformationwere collected. Among total Dalit population,male constitute 43.53 percentandfemaleconstitute 56.46 percent and hence the sex ratio is 71.1. Highconcentration seems in the age group 15-19 years i.e. 12.5 percent formale and 19.5 percent for females. About 52.9 percent people aremarried. Out of the eligible women 86.6 percent are married under20years of age. The literacy rate of the Dalit population is 82.8 percentand the 23.6 percent of eligible women are illiterate. The sample womendominantly do household work. Only 48.8 percent couples ofreproductive age werefoundas thecurrentlyuserofcontraception. High fertility culture was shown by these people. Women of age group45-49 years had 3.5 mean CEB. Lower fertility behaviour wasassociated with literacy and having higher age at marriage. Betteroccupation status helps to reduce fertility. Use of contraception, age at marriage, literacy status and occupation ofrespondents are found to be inversely (negatively) associated with thenumber of fertility(CEB). It is argued that fertility remains high due to high child mortality. High fertility has ensured high dependency and burden. Similarly,current skewed distribution of population towards the younger ages would result high fertility level in some year to come.