Fertility and proximate determinants in rural Tamil Nadu

Abstract

This study analyses the reproductive behaviour of four cultural groups who live in the same rural social environment in Tamil Nadu. India. More specifically, the levels and differentials in fertility and its proximate determinants, with cultural group as a study unit, form the focus of this thesis. Attempts are also made, within the constraints of data availability, to clarify certain relations between proximate determinants and fertility. The data come from a four year longitudinal study with several revisits to the study women. The four cultural groups are three Hindu caste groups, namely Vellalas. Scheduled Castes and Other Hindus, and Muslims. The cultural groups are clearly different from each other in their levels of fertility as well as in the levels of proximate determinants. Muslims have the highest fertility followed by Scheduled Caste Hindus, Other Hindus and Vellalas. Even in more homogeneous socio-demographic subgroups the cultural group differentials persist. The within- group differentials, in contrast, are generally weaker. Caste or religious group appears to be a very appropriate unit to study the fertility in view of their homogeneity,which is likely to have arisen from their social norms on proximate determinants being different. It appears that the explanations for the cultural group differentials may lie in age at marriage and certain family regulation practices that could only be indirectly estimated such as the age at which women stop childbearing. The reported contraceptive use does not appear to reflect the extent of family l imitation estimated using age patterns of fertility. Length of breastfeeding appear to exhibit interesting differentials in maternal literacy and maternal occupation. The relation between proximate determinants and fertility is governed by both behavioural and biological aspects. Attempts were made to examine such relation between age at marriage, breastfeeding and fertility. It appears that the higher age specific fertility of later marriers and the lesser fertility of breastfeeding menstruating women may be explained to some extent in 'non- behavioural terms.