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Saswata Ghosh, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK)
Md. Zakaria Siddiqui, Crawford School of Public Policy Australian National University
Debojyoti Majumder, SIGMA Foundation
Since India’s independence, population stabilization has been one of the prime concerns in its development agenda. Although fertility decline in India has been underway since 1970s, fertility levels in the northern and north-central states are continued to be high. Using data from Census 2011 and other district level surveys the present study adopted the analytical approach proposed by Bhat (1996) to explain interregional variations of fertility in India. Additionally, individual level data from National Family Health Survey-4 conducted during 2015-16 were used to compare and substantiate findings of district-level analyses. By employing multilevel linear regressions, we found that although factors representing socio-economic structure, ideational changes, and health and family welfare could adequately explain regional variations of fertility even in present day Indian society, new forms of social entities are also emerging which would also contribute in fertility transition.
Keywords: Fertility and childbirth, Multi-level modeling, Population geography, Family planning and contraception