Volume: 6 Issue: 3
Year: 2018, Page: 56-60,
Background : The population clock on every day morning, shows that in spite of so many family planning projects, the population of India is increasing at rapid rate.
Objectives: To find out the socio demographic and fertility profile of eligible couples and to find out their gender preference and their opinion regarding most influencing person in family planning decisions.
Materials and Methods :A community based cross sectional study was conducted among a representative sample of “Eligible Couples” in an urban slum area of West Bengal and data was collected by means of interview technique from 168 Eligible Couples (336 Respondents).
Results :Mean and Standard Deviation of age of husbands and wives were 32.1 ± SD 7.6 years and 26.6 ± SD 6.8 years respectively. 42% of husbands were skilled, 67.9% wives were home-makers, 55.6% had Per Capita Income ≥Rs. 1501/ per month. Mean age at marriage for men and women were 25.7 ± SD 4.8 years and 20.4±SD 4.1years. Most of the women (40.1%) got married before 18 years. Mean age at first child birth was 22 ± SD 4.4 years. 42.6% gave birth to their first child in the age group 18-24 years. Mean family size was 1.37. 43.2% of husbands were educated up to primary school while majority wives (35.8%) were illiterate. Literacy among males was more than females and this difference was statistically significant. Most of the men (34.0%) & women (33.3%) wanted at least one son. 65.4% of men themselves were found to be most influencing whereas in case of women (57.4%) husbands were the most influencing regarding family planning decisions, while only 21.6% of the respondents took joint decision regarding family planning matters.
Conclusion :Majority had son preference and majority of the family planning decisions were taken by male persons. Various factors like increasing the age of marriage to legally accepted one, education status of both husband and wife, encouraging wives to equably participating in decision making, adopting two child norms, appropriate and timely use of contraceptives would go a long way in maintaining the family and achieving the total fertility rate goal.
Keywords: Son preference, family planning, contraceptives
1. Hansen Z 2002. Population Control.http:// www.colby.edu/personal/t/ thtieten/famplan. htm. (Retrieved on 14 Dec. 2005).
2. Sharma A K, Grover V, Agarwal OP, Dubey K., Sharma S. Pattern of contraceptive use by residents of a village in south Delhi. Indian Journal of Public Health 1997; 41(3): 75-78.
3. Parek HJ, Rao DS .Role of husbands in family planning. Journal of Community Medicine 1984;23: 22-24.
4. Bhujan KC. Social Mobility and Family Planning Practices in Rural Bangladesh – A Case Study. The Journal of Family Welfare 1991; 37(4): 46-58.
5. Shukla M. Importance of Women’s Literacy for effective implementation of population education program.me. http://www.literacyonline.org/products /ili/weddocs/ manju2.html. (Retrieved on 23 August 2006).
6. Park. K: Family Planning, Eligible Couples, Contraceptive Prevalence Rate. In: Park’s textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine 21st edition, Jabalpur: BanarsidasBhanot Publishers 2011:454-456.
7. Ever married Questionnaire DLHS (http:// www.rchiips.org/ARCH-3.html; Retrieved on october 2009).
8. District Level Household and Facility Survey-3,2007-08 State Report -West Bengal available from http:// www.rchiips.org/pdf/rch3/report/WB.pdf Retrieved on 24th July 2010.
9. National Family Health Survey-3,2005-06: State ReportWest Bengal available from http://www.nfhsindia.org/ westbengal_report.shtml.Retrieved on 24th June 2010.NFHS-3(2005-06):women questionnaire.
10. Hank K, Kohler H-P. Gender Preferences for Children in Europe: Empirical Results from 17 FFS Countries. [12/08/ 2014];Demographic Research. 2000 2(1) Available at URL: http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol2/1/ 2-1.pdf.
11. Walker MK, Conner GK. Fetal sex preference of secondtrimester gravidas. J Nurse Midwifery 1993;38(2):110– 113.
12. Iseri E, Gürhan N, Ozbas AA, Sari BA. Preferences for sex of firstborn child among primiparous Turkish women.Psychol Rep 2012;111(1):165–172.
13. Fuse K. Variations in attitudinal gender preferences for children across 50 less-developed countries. Demographic Research 2010;23(36):1031–1048.
14. Chhetri UD, Ansari I, Bandary S, Adhikari N. Sex preferences among mothers delivering at Patan Hospital. Kathmandu Univ Med J (KUMJ) 2011;9(36):229–232.
15. Du LR, Ding ZY. Reproductive expectation and gender preferences of parents in poverty areas of China.ZhonghuaErKeZaZhi 2004;42(12):898–901.
16. El-Gilany AH, Shady E. Determinants and causes of son preference among women delivering in Mansoura, Egypt. East Mediterr Health J 2007;13(1):119–128.
17. Hiremath, R.N. Yadav AK, Ghodke S, YadavJ.Contraceptive use and its determinants amongst armed forces personnel. Medical Journal Armed Forces India Volume 1 , Issue 1 (Published in Ahead of print)
18. Nithin K, Tanuj K, Unnikrishnan B, et al. Gender preferences among antenatal women: a cross-sectional study from coastal South India. African Health Sciences 2015;15(2):560-567. doi:10.4314/ahs.v15i2.31.
19. Yasmin S, Mukherjee A, Manna N, Baur B, Datta M, Sau M, Roy M, Dasgupta S. Gender preference and awareness regarding sex determination among antenatal mothers attending a medical college of eastern India. Scand J Public Health 2013;41(4):344-50.
20. Wadgave HV, Jatti GM, Pore PD. Attitude of Pregnant Women towards the Gender Preference. Indian Journal of Maternal and child health 2011;13(4):1-7.
21. KhandelwalVidit, ChakoleSwarupa V, Gupta Harshal1, Mehta Satish C. Gender preference, attitude and awareness regarding sex determination among married women attending general OPD & antenatal clinic of RDGMC, Ujjain, MP, India. National Journal of Community Medicine 2012; Vol 3 Issue 2:221-223.
22. Idda Mosha, Ruerd Ruben and DeodatusKakoko. Family planning decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health 2013; 13:523.
23. Deon Filmer, Jed Friedman, and Norbert Schady. The Preference for Sons Does Not Always Decrease with Development. The research at world bank 2009; 12:229.
Kumari V , Hiremath RN, Ghodke S, Janagond A B, Patil P. Gender preference and family planning decisions : A cross-sectional study among eligible couples staying in slum area of Eastern India. Perspectives in Medical Research 2018; 6(3):56-60.