Hindu-Muslim Differentials in Fertility and Contraceptive Use: A Study in Major Indian States

Mohai Menul Biswas , International Institute for Population Sciences
Perianayagam Arokiasamy, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Background: The behaviours of high fertility and low contraceptive use among Muslims compared to Hindu, and other religious community has been reflected in several studies. Due to various socio-economic reasons, fertility is higher than average among Muslims that attracts the attention. Objectives: To examine the trends and differentials in fertility and contraceptive use among the Hindus and Muslims and identify the influencing factors of high fertility in major Indian states. Data and Methodology: The study used the publicly available data from one to fourth round of National Family Health Surveys (NFHS-1 to 4) of India. For the trends analysis of fertility, we used the Stata software module (tfr2), Poisson regression model and multivariate logistic regression model to examine the effect of religion as well as socio-demographic determinants on fertility and contraceptive use. Results: Muslim fertility is higher than Hindus in India in all socio-economic spectrum. But the Muslim fertility has declined faster than the Hindus in India. The older mothers are more likely to have the birth in the last five years. The prevalence of contraceptive use among the religious groups varies spatially in a different trend. The use of contraceptive among Hindus tends to decline while among Muslims it is increasing. Conclusions: This study confirms that the fertility transition is well underway in both the communities in India and the fertility among Muslims has experienced faster decline compared to the Hindu fertility. Key Words: Religion, Total Fertility Rate, Contraceptive Use, Hindu, Muslim and India.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course