Socio-economic determinants of fertility: A study among the Muslim women of Dangohir village, Pipli block, Puri

Abstract

India is the first country to adopt a family planning program as official policy, but India’s population is still growing at a rate that threatens to cause even more serious social and environmental problems in the future.  The highest decadal growth rate of the Muslims among the six major religious communities prompts much interest among the scholars to conduct micro level researches to know the relationship between religion and fertility behaviour. The objectives in this paper are (i) to assess the contribution of different socio- economic factors in the fertility behaviour of the Muslim women in a rural village of Odisha and (ii) to interprete different crude indicators of fertility. The present study reveals that the high fertility rate of the said population is positively contributed by a number of socio-economic and religious factors. It is therefore a matter of concern that needs implementation of proactive public policies addressing various concerns of Muslims, particularly in the domain of education, employment and health care facility.