Some aspects of family and fertility in India

Fertility is studied in relation to the age at return marriage using the data from a study in a rural area in India. As would be expected the total fertility rate of married women declines with lateness in the age at return marriage. However, further analysis has shown that those who marry later tend to compensate for the loss of their early reproductive period in two ways, so that their ultimate fertility is not much reduced by late marriage. Among those who married later, the time interval between return marriage and the first birth is relatively short, and for later ages the age-specific fertility rates are relatively high, as compared with those who married earlier. The interval from return marriage to first birth was unusually long among Indian women. To a certain extent the explanation may lie in the long visits the young wife makes to her parental home. In any case, the high fertility in India, with early marriage, desire for sons, and non-use of contraceptives, leads to a low incidence of childlessness.