Preference for Boys,Family Size,and Educational Attainment in India

Using data from nationally representative household surveys, we test whether Indian parents make trade-offs between the number of children and investments in education. To address the endogeneity due to the joint determination of quantity and quality of children, we instrument family size with the gender of the first child, which is plausibly random. Given a strong son preference in India, parents tend to have more children if the firstborn is a girl. Our instrumental variable results show that children from larger families have lower educational attainment and are less likely to be enrolled in school, with larger effects for rural, poorer, and low-caste families as well as for families with illiterate mothers.     

Child marriage in India]

Child marriages have been practiced in India for thousands of years. Even though its popularity has now decreased due to changes in law and society, it is still a major problem, causing a great deal of hardship. Even though laws prohibited child marriage as early as 1860, statistics show that, on the average, Indians marry very young (1972: females at age 17; males at age 22 years of age; 34 females and 13 males under age 15). The following are incentives to marry young and have large families: 1) religion teaches that only those with descendants go to heaven; 2) unmarried women are traditionally scorned; and 3) most importantly, economic reasons encourage people to have large families as soon as possible, e.g., male children are encouraged to marry to obtain the dowry as soon as possible and children are considered a source of income in India. Child marriage in India causes the following problems: 1) a high infant mortality rate, as much as 75% in rural areas; 2) an imbalance in the male to female ratio (1901: 970 females/1000 males; 1971: 930 females/1000 males) because women who marry young tend to lose their health earlier; 3) a population explosion: in 1971, the Indian population was found to be increasing at the rate of 225/1000.     

Gender and savings in rural India

In this study we use data from rural India to examine the impact of the birth of a boy relative to the birth of a girl (i.e., the “gender shock”) on the savings, consumption and income of rural Indian households. We find that the gender shock reduces savings for medium and large farm households, although there is no evidence that the shock affects savings for the landless and the small farm households. We also estimate the effect of the shock on income and consumption for the former group in order to determine the source of the drop in savings. The results indicate that the fall in savings subsequent to the gender shock arises from its effect on consumption in the year following the birth, and from its effect on income in other years. Received: 3 September 1996 /Accepted: 15 July 1997     

Unhealthy Weight in Indian Families: The Role of the Family Environment in the Context of the Nutrition Transition

India faces a dual burden of increasing obesity and persistent underweight as it experiences the nutrition transition—the dietary and lifestyle changes that accompany globalization, economic development, and technological change. Yet, the nutrition transition is not solely a top-down process; rather, global forces converge with local practices at multiple levels of the social ecology. The family environment, a key site for the transmission of local customs and norms, remains largely unexplored in India. We examined the extent to which opposite-gender siblings and mother–child pairs were concordant or discordant in body weight, and whether domains of the family environment, specifically, food practices, food-related gender norms, and household resources, were associated with patterns of unhealthy weight within and between families. Multilevel dyadic analysis and logistic regression were conducted using survey data from a representative sample of 400 families in a Southern Indian city. We identified substantial clustering of weight among opposite-gender sibling pairs (ICC = 0.43) and mother–child pairs, as well as important patterns of discordance, including 11% of families experiencing a dual burden of underweight and overweight. Household resources, including mother’s education and income, were salient in explaining the distribution of body weight within and between families. Importantly, less examined domains of the family environment were also relevant, including food practices (e.g., grocery shopping frequency), and food-related gender norms (e.g., mother’s control of food served at home). Continued exploration of how global and local practices converge in households will be necessary to develop programming that effectively addresses India’s dual burden of unhealthy weight.     

Skewed Sex Ratios in India: “Physician, Heal Thyself”

Sex selection, a gender discrimination of the worst kind, is highly prevalent across all strata of Indian society. Physicians have a crucial role in this practice and implementation of the Indian Government’s Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1996 to prevent the misuse of ultrasound techniques for the purpose of prenatal sex determination. Little is known about family preferences, let alone preferences among families of physicians. We investigated the sex ratios in 946 nuclear families with 1,624 children, for which either one or both parents were physicians. The overall child sex ratio was more skewed than the national average of 914. The conditional sex ratios decreased with increasing number of previous female births, and a previous birth of a daughter in the family was associated with a 38 % reduced likelihood of a subsequent female birth. The heavily skewed sex ratios in the families of physicians are indicative of a deeply rooted social malady that could pose a critical challenge in correcting the sex ratios in India.     

An analysis of the size of the family household and family structure in China]

Since 1949, great social and economic changes have taken place in China. The entire economic structure and social relations are no longer the way they used to be. These changes have also had a strong impact on the size of family households and family structure. Major changes are summarized as follows: (1) The size of the present family household has been greatly reduced from its earlier size. The main reason for this reduction in size is the change of the social system. Under the new social system, the natural population growth rate and family structure have shown the greatest change from the past. (2) The major change in family structure is that small families have replaced the traditional large families. Under the large family system, several generations may stay together as one household, and brothers do not divide the large family even after they are married. Under the small family system, a household is normally limited to the parents and their children. With the gradual disappearance of large families, small families are increasing rapidly. Some households with three generations living together are still in existence, and the young and the old may support each other in their daily life. Both in cities and in rural areas, the traditional custom of respecting one's old parents still exists. There must be a value and necessity for the existence of this particular kind of family structure.     

Multivariate relationships between modernity value orientations and family planning indicators

Using canonical correlation techniques in the analysis of data collected from interviews with 1,737 married women of three Indian states, this paper evaluated three modernity value orientations—subjective efficacy, openness to change, and propensity to plan—as predictors of a set of four family planning indicators. The analysis revealed that, in Haryana, both subjective efficacy and openness to change were related to family planning knowledge and attitudes as well as to favorability toward small family size. Propensity to plan was related to adoption. In rural Tamil Nadu, subjective efficacy and openness to change were related essentially to family planning attitudes, whereas in urban Tamil Nadu they were strongly related to adoption. In the latter area, the best linear association between the modernity variables (predictor set) and the family planning variables (criterion set) resulted when the criterion set was so weighted that it involved a large amount of adoption and a moderate amount of contraceptive knowledge and attitudes. Thus, in urban Tamil Nadu, the four family planning variables seemed to cohere, reflecting cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral consistency. Except in Meghalaya, it appears that married women with higher subjective efficacy, openness to change, and planning tendency may be more likely than others to translate their family planning knowledge and favorability toward small family size into action, under suitable conditions. Some of the implications of the findings are discussed.The author is affiliated with the Council for Social Development, 53 Lodi Estate, New Delhi, 110003, India.     

Massive drive to reenergize the family planning programme

A massive drive has been launched throughout India in an effort to reenergize the family planning program. The Prime Minister has made a special appeal to the nation from radio and television networks and through the press to adopt the small family norm as a way of life. The Chief Ministers and the Health Ministers in the States have made similar appeals to the people and the doctors. The current drive was preceded by 18 months of concentrated efforts to vitalize the family planning program. The change in nomenclature from "family planning" to "family welfare" created some misunderstanding regarding the government's own commitment to the program, but it is now widely understood that while family welfare aims at the total welfare of the family, family planning is an essential part of it. The government has tried to involve all sectors of society in program efforts. The mass media is now focusing attention on "family welfare" almost continuously. In villages, a large-scale program of organizing education camps of opinion leaders is now underway. The rural health scheme, initiated in October 1977, promises to bring about increased participation of the people in village programs. 54,000 community health workers have already started serving the rural population in their areas. In 2-3 years there will be 1 trained community health worker in every Indian village.     

Women--the deciding factor in family planning?

Prominent women from Korea, Nepal, India, Philippines, Thailand, and Afghanistan discuss family planning attitudes in broad terms. Educated women in urban areas make decisions regarding birth control and family size, but the tradition in most developing countries is that of the man in the authority role. Family planning is intrinsically a joint decision. Obligations to family and family lineage prohibit family planning. In the Philippines, Catholicism is the dominant religion and because of population density, encourages family planning. For economic and social reasons, rural families prefer more children. The changing role of women to include jobs and education will have a positive effect on family planning. The representative from Nepal points out that it is necessary to have family planning in order to have changing women's roles. Rather than emphasizing smaller family size, it is recommended by concensus, that family planners communicate health and nutritional benefits for each individual child.     

The Status of Family Resilience: Effects of Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural China

Family resilience is the capacity of a family to mitigate adversity using its resources, structure, and internal connections. In rural China, where sustainable livelihoods are changing rapidly because of urbanization and migration, it is not clear how family resilience interacts with sustainability of livelihoods. This study of rural Chinese families classifies individual’s perceived family resilience and discusses how sustainable livelihoods influence this classification. A multilevel survey of rural families reveals three categories of perceived resilience in families: perceived optimistic families, perceived cooperative families, and perceived pessimistic families. Sustainable livelihoods, including natural, social, financial, and human capitals, have significant impacts on this classification of perceived family resilience. We conclude that rural families in China vary in their levels of family resilience, and the more physical and financial capital they have, the more internal cooperation there is within families. The more natural and traditional social capital families have, the less internal cooperation there is within families. The more human resources families have, the more resilience they have.

     

Launching a no-birth bonus scheme in South India

The United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) initiated a research program in five states to find out basic facts on family composition necessary to start family planning. In 1971 it started a No Birth Scheme. Its objectives go beyond the immediate need of adopting measures to produce smaller families. It cares about the worker's family as a whole. UPASI thought that a deferred incentive was better than cash, and, if more successful than other campaigns, it could be adapted to rural areas. As a voluntary industrial association it could play a major role in developing countries since their participation in social programs depends on the degree of confidence and acceptance of the workers. The eligible women work together with the state manager and medical staff. The plantation workers come from the rural community and their way of life and habits are similar to those living in rural areas. The Scheme introduced a bonus as an obligation of the state management. Each acceptor had an account book in which she would make the proper entries, showing thus her compliance to the rules of the Scheme. There were no conditions about the contraception used and no deduction was made unless a baby was born. 90.8% of the eligible women who registered, only 5.7% were defaulters. The birth rate per 1,000 population was 40.4 in 1969/70 and 38.9 in 1970/71; 37.3 in 1971/72; 27.2 in 1972/73; 25.4 in 1973/74. The birth d ata for the most recent years is not available. 'UPASI is still a plantation industrial association, but the project staff believe that similar schemes can function in the rural areas with some organizational modifications.     

农村中小学独生子女社会化状况的实证研究

文章运用社会化的有关理论,利用广西阳朔县436名中小学生的抽样问卷调查资料,以同龄的非独生子女为比较对象,对农村中小学独生子女的社会化状况进行了描述和分析。研究发现：农村中小学独生子女在生活技能、人际交往、价值观念和自我意识四个方面的社会化状况都比较好,并且在所有的指标上都和同龄非独生子女之间没有显著差别。     

Another Gendered Demographic Dividend: Adjusting to a Future without Sons

Sonless families may pose a gendered demographic dividend. As fertility declines, families with only daughters are likely to grow. In turn, patriarchal family systems may weaken when many families are unable to engage in patriarchal practices. I examine some of these theorized dynamics in India. Sonless families did grow as fertility declined, reaching 10 percent in India as a whole in 2015 and approaching 20 percent in states with earlier fertility declines. I also identify a substantial influence of children's sex on mothers’ expectations of old-age support. Using panel data from the India Human Development Survey, I compare women's expectations after they had children to earlier expectations when they did not yet have children. Women with sons kept or further embraced patriarchal expectations that a son would provide support. Sonless mothers largely gave up patriarchal expectations, turning to daughters or away from children altogether.     

Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from india

Although the effect of son preference on sex composition of children ever born is undetectable in national-level estimates that aggregate across all families, this article provides empirical evidence from India that son preference has two pronounced and predictable family-level effects on the sex composition of children ever born. First, data from India show that smaller families have a significantly higher proportion of sons than larger families. Second, socially and economically disadvantaged couples and couples from the northern region of India not only want but also attain a higher proportion of sons, if the effects of family size are controlled.     

社会救助视角下农村家庭养老服务津贴政策构想

为救助困难家庭的老人、提升老人的养老质量,政府已为部分困难老人购买社会养老服务。然而受制于各地经济社会发展水平,在广大的农村地区、甚至部分城镇地区,社会化服务发展水平较低、服务人员和队伍不足,绝大多数家庭尚未享受到政府购买服务,困难老人仍然依靠传统的家庭养老服务。基于与政府购买社会养老服务政策相匹配的理念,文章通过梳理国内外家庭养老服务相关实践发现对提供服务的家庭予以部分经济补贴是可行之路,实际调研中也发现当下农村地区困难老人面临的养老责任扯皮推诿、服务水平低等问题多为经济不足诱发。针对农村地区为老人提供家庭养老服务的困难家庭,本文从目标、原则、管理体制等几个方面为其构建农村家庭养老服务津贴政策。     

Liushou Women’s Happiness and its Influencing Factors in Rural China

The economic development of urban cities in China has attracted a large number of labour from the rural countryside. The married migrant workers will usually leave their wives’ homes to look after the other family members and the farmland. A special term liushou women, has been created for this group of women. Among the 87 million rural residents, 47 million of them are liushou women according to the recent survey conducted by China Agricultural University. They play a crucial role in the development of rural economy and an essential role to the social stability of rural China. In this research, the factors that influence the happiness of liushou women were investigated in the Western part of China. Based on the population investigated, it was found that the financial situation, personality, government efficiency, conjugal relationship and relationship with in-laws are the significant factors influencing the happiness of liushou women. This finding demonstrates that the Chinese women are willing to sacrifice their personal interest for the interests of their families.     

The Determinants of Low Fertility in India

Using a conceptual framework focusing on factors that enhance or reduce fertility relative to desired family size (see Bongaarts 2001), we study fertility variation across time (1992–2006) and space (states) in India. Our empirical analyses use data from three waves of the Indian National Family Health Surveys. We find that this framework can account for a substantial portion of the variation in the total fertility rate (TFR) over time and across states. Our estimates focus attention on the critical components of contemporary Indian fertility, especially desired family size, unwanted fertility, son preference, and fertility postponement.     

Diversity and change in Cambodian households, 1998–2006

Extant ethnographic studies suggest that the nuclear family has been the predominant living arrangement in Cambodia, and the country’s rapid socioeconomic transformation since the early 1990s may have accentuated that dominance. To examine these claims, we analyse here household structure in Cambodia between 1998 and 2006, based on data from the 1998 Census, two nationally-representative surveys (2000 and 2005), and a continuing demographic surveillance system (from 2000 on). Our analysis confirms the large prevalence of nuclear families, but not an unequivocal trend toward their increasing prevalence. First, nuclear families are less prevalent in urban than in rural areas, and nationwide, they appear to have receded slightly between 2000 and 2005. We find that increases in the prevalence of extended households correspond to periods of faster economic growth, and interpret these contrasted trends as signs of tensions during this transitional period in Cambodia. While the nuclear family may still be the cultural norm, a high degree of pragmatism is also evident in the acceptance of other living arrangements, albeit temporary, as required by economic opportunities and housing shortage in urban areas.     

父母与公婆之间的权衡:农村女性家庭权力与养老资源的分配

本文尝试探讨身具"儿媳—女儿"双重身份的农村已婚女性在家庭养老资源分配过程中,如何在公婆与父母之间进行权衡.通过对山东省莒南县868份问卷调查数据的分析,发现公婆与父母所获得的养老支持存在显著性差异,女性更倾向于将家庭养老资源给予自己父母而非公婆.家庭资源的多寡对女性承担公婆与父母的赡养义务均有很重要的影响作用,且家庭...     

India's population in transition

This demographic profile of India addresses fertility, family planning, and economic issues. India is described as a country shifting from economic policies of self-reliance to active involvement in international trade. Wealth has increased, particularly at higher educational levels, yet 25% still live below the official poverty line and almost 66% of Indian women are illiterate. The government program in family planning, which was instituted during the early 1950s, did not change the rate of natural increase, which remained stable at 2.2% over the past 30 years. 1993 marked the first time the growth rate decline to under 2%. The growth rate in 1995 was 1.9%. The total population is expected double in 36 years. Only Nigeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh had a higher growth rate and higher fertility in 1995. India is geographically diverse (with the northern Himalayan mountain zone, the central alluvial plains, the western desert region, and the southern peninsula with forest, mountains, and plains). There are regional differences in the fertility rates, which range from replacement level in Kerala and Goa to 5.5 children in Uttar Pradesh. Fertility is expected to decline throughout India due to the slower pace of childbearing among women over the age of 35 years, the increase in contraceptive use, and increases in marriage age. Increased educational levels in India and its state variations are related to lower fertility. Literacy campaigns are considered to be effective means of increasing the educational levels of women. Urbanization is not expected to markedly affect fertility levels. Urban population, which is concentrated in a few large cities, remains a small proportion of total population. Greater shifts are evident in the transition from agriculture to other wage labor. Fertility is expected to decline as women's share of labor force activity increases. The major determinant of fertility decline in India is use of family planning, which has improved in access and use during the 1980s. If India is to keep a stable population under 1.6 billion in the future, Indians may have to accept only one child per family.