Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-3
T Total fertility rates by state. Note that lower
fertility rates are in southern India, where
women are literate and have more education.
India's T Total Fertility
Rate 2001 (Percentage)
1.0%-1.9%
2.0%-2.9%
3.0%-3.9%
4.0% & above
followed by periods of stable levels. Whether India has
reached another plateau is not clear.
Also, as we saw in Chapter 3, poorer families tend
to have more children. Poor, uneducated women, who
have less control of their bodies or have no access to
birth control information or devices, also have higher
TFRs Y ou can see by Figure 8-3 that TFRs are much
lower in India' s southern states where families are less
poor and women more educated (Figure 8-4). In fact,
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have TFRs lower than that of
the United States!
Not all populations are growing at the same rate;
regional variations are apparent. Remember that
growth rates account for both natural increase and mi-
gration. Most migration within India comprises males
or entire families. A woman rarely moves anywhere on
her own unless it is to the home of her husband. In
fact, 75 percent of female migration in India is related
to marriage.
In 1996, the Indian government eliminated national
targets for acceptance of fertility control methods. The
government promulgated its first National Population
Policy in 2000. This policy contains a variety of popula-
tion growth-reduction socioeconomic programs such as
lowering maternal and child mortality , promoting later
marriage, universal immunization of children, and AIDS
prevention.
A new “Target-Free Approach” puts
voluntary
family
planning at the community level, where grassroots work-
ers set targets according to individual needs. Acceptance
of all forms of birth control has risen since that time, but
the effects are yet to be seen. Moreover, some states such
as Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra have objected to
these government efforts to encourage couples to have
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