Determinants of Age at Marriage and Fertility Behaviour Bantawa Rai Community (A Case Study of Balankha and Thindinkha Villages, Bhojpur District)

Abstract

This study is devoted to observe the “Determinants of Age at Marriage and Fertility Behaviour Bantawa Rai Communities", which is carried out in Bhojpur district covering two VDCs, namely Balankha and Thidinkha. The main objectives of this study are to analyze the socio-economic status and age at marriage of Bantawa Rai,to analyze the determinants of fertility behaviour of Bantawa Rai community and to suggest the policy and programmes regarding to regulate fertility among Bantawa Rai community. A total of 134 currently married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) from 102 household were taken for this research work. Data were obtained on household and individuals level. Eight socio-economic and demographic variables such as age of first marriage,miscarriage, use of FP method, income of the family/household and education and occupation of the respondents and their husbands are taken as the explanatory variables to observe the association of these variables with the mean number of CEBof the study area. The findings of the study show that the association of all selected explanatory variables except miscarriage with the mean number of CEB is revealed to be a negative one whereas miscarriage is found positively associated according to the proposed hypotheses in the study. The overall mean CEB of the respondents is found to be 2.26 per woman of the study population. Hence, to reduce the mean number of CEB among Bantawa women, governments hould launch some formal and informal educational programmes to increase the literacy level and educational level for the women of Bantawas Rai and for their husbands. Similarly, educated women and their husbands should be provided opportunity to enter in social services as well as other non farm sectors which may help for delaying their marriage to reduce the mean number of CEB and also income level of their family or household should be raised.