Journal of Global Resources

Volume 2

January 2016
Page 171-176
ISSN: 2395-3160 (Print), 2455-2445 (Online)

22
FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR AND MODERN FERTILITY CONTROL TECHNIQUES: A CASESTUDY OF AJMER DISTRICT
Kirti Choudhary
Lecturer in Geography, S.P.C. Government College, Ajmer (Raj.), India
Email: dr.kirtichoudhary27@gmail.com

Abstract: Human control over the process of child birth is increasing with the development ofscience and technology. Advancement has changed the attitude of women towards pregnancy
and child birth. The extent, to which the couples in their reproductive age accept the idea offamily limitation and practice it, influences the fertility of a group or society to a great level.
Though the Indian Government launched an official family planning programme in 1952 topromote the idea of family limitation and to make contraceptives available to the people for thispurpose but the KAP surveys reveal the poor penetration of FPP in the rural areas. The aim of
the paper is to explore fertility behaviour as embedded in the framework of rural and urban
society. The paper focuses on people’s response to FPP. What are the differences in beliefs
regarding fertility control measures? What is the status of women regarding the acceptance of
FPP? In this paper, various aspects of the knowledge of family planning are examined on thepart of the respondents. These include the concept of family planning as understood by them,time when first heard, germination of the idea of family planning, sources of information,
advantages and disadvantages of family planning and awareness of the governments’program of family planning. The paper is based on intensive fieldwork. The data for thepresent study were collected through household survey conducted by administering structured
questionnaires to randomly selected household residing in rural and urban areas of Ajmer
District. The sample selection was confined to the household with eligible women (in the agegroup of 15-44).The traditional and modern societies have their own characteristic, distinct
demographic and family planning behaviour pattern. The former favours low growth rates of
population with high fertility and mortality situations whereas the latter favours a refined
demographic and family planning behaviour with low fertility and mortality situations.
Keywords: Fertility Behaviour, Modern Fertility, Family Planning.
Fertility behaviour refers not merely to the bearing of children but also to their care andsocialization and the maintenance of adult individuals through their lives, processes which
create individuals to fit more or less into the social structure of society and so ensure thecontinuation of that society in the next generation. Human control over the process of childbirth is increasing with the development of science and technology. Advancement haschanged the attitude of women towards pregnancy and child birth. The extent, to which thecouples in their reproductive age accept the idea of family limitation and practice it, influences
the fertility of a group or society to a great level. The successful limitation of family size by the
couples depends not only on their family ideals but also on their psychological acceptance offamily limitation, knowledge of birth control methods, availability ofcontraceptives,
psychological and economic costs and more important an environment favorable to thepractice of birth control (Ramu, 1988). Though the Indian government launched an official
family planning programme in 1952 to promote the idea of family limitation and to makecontraceptives available to the people for this purpose but the KAP surveys reveal the poor
penetration of FPP in the rural areas.
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The aim of the paper is to explore fertility behaviour as embedded in the framework of
rural and urban society. The paper focuses on people’s response to FPP. In this paper,
various aspects of the knowledge of family planning are examined on the part of the
respondents. These include the concept of family planning as understood by them, time when
first heard, germination of the idea of family planning, sources of information, advantages anddisadvantages of family planning and awareness of the governments’ program of familyplanning. The paper is based on intensive fieldwork. The data for the present study werecollected through household survey conducted by administering structured questionnaires torandomly selected household residing in rural and urban areas of Ajmer District. The sample
selection was confined to the household with eligible women (in the age group of 15-44).
Awareness of the People
Increasing population means a constant drain of the limited resources of the nation so fertility
control is a necessary step without which economic development would be retarded. The
Family Planning Programme in India was officially launched in 1952. The couples do not feelthe need to plan their family due to their ignorance of the effective use of contraceptives andthe importance of spacing children for the health of both mother and child. Effective fertility
control is, therefore possible only by adequately motivating and enlightening the couple topractice family planning. In order to access the knowledge of family planning the respondent
are asked ‘Do you know about family planning? In response to this question out of 1200 urban
respondents, 93.4 percent replied in the affirmative. On the contrary, in rural sample only 60.2
percent respondents replied ‘yes’. This shows that the concept of family planning iscomparatively familiar to the urban people rather than to the rural ones. FPP took an unusuallylong time to reach the rural areas. Although the people of Ajmer have heard about the birthcontrol programme and techniques they have little clarity about it.
The people of rural areas and those living in joint families in urban areas of Ajmer
subscribe to a complex set of practices and beliefs about fertility, spacing of births, mother andchild health and optimum family size. But FPP reflects little knowledge of people’s reproductive
beliefs and practices. Therefore, people’s response to FPP has been to compare it with theirown practices of fertility behaviour. The norms, values, prevailing beliefs, rituals, social
practices and folk medicines are too complex to permit an uncritical acceptance of FPP. Now
everywhere in urban and rural areas, family planning centers are being opened which arefurnished with literature, scientific appliances and medicines to be freely distributed. At placesin the cities, trained staff has been kept to give free advice and help in the use ofcontraceptives. It is for the people to rise to the occasion and make most of the help available.
Therefore, it is useful to find out the source of information about family planning. Table 1
indicates the various sources of information about family planning.
The table indicates that in the rural areas 723 respondents are aware of familyplanning measures. Among the various sources of information about family planning
74.6percent respondents are motivated by family planning workers and officials and 2.8
percent by radio. Only 1.9 percent respondents told that their source of information isposter/literature. Data reveals that in rural areas, the family planning workers and officials are
the major sources of information because they go door to door and educate the people aboutfamily planning. And for urban areas, the family planning literature is comparatively more
effective source as 64.9 percent respondents are informed by this sources, 24.2 percent
respondents are informed by friends, relatives and neighbours. Thus mouth publicity is themain source of information in the urban areas. An individual imports his experience andknowledge to another. To collect information about the family planning centers the
respondents are asked, ‘Has Government opened any family planning centre in your areas’. In
172response to this 96.6percent urban respondents know that the government has opened familyplanning centers in their area while 3.4 percent replied ‘No’. 85.5 percent rural respondents
replied ‘Yes’ while 14.5 percent replied ‘No’. The respondents are also asked about their visit
to the Family Planning Clinics. In response to this 93.4 percent urban respondent and only
60.2 percent rural respondents replied ‘Yes’, they have visited a family planning clinic. This
indicates a change in the behaviour of the people and overcome of unfavourable beliefs andsuperstitions relating to family planning.
Table 1: Respondents Sources of Information about Family Planning#

Sources of Information

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Relatives/Friends/Neighbours
Family Planning workers/officials
Leaders
Radio
Posters/Literature
Cinema/Slide projection/video films
Total

Freq. of Resp.
Urban
Rural
271
29
53
539
23
19
15
20
727
14
32
102
1121
723

Percentage
Urban
Rural
24.2
4.0
4.8
74.6
2.0
2.6
1.3
2.8
64.9
1.9
2.8
14.1
100.0
100.0

Acceptance of the People
Most people in rural areas consider FPP synonymous to termination of fertility i.e. sterilization.
They are seen as governmental means to curtail or stop childbirth. Inspite of the knowledge
about certain contraceptives, people seldom use them regularly. An attempt is made toascertain adoption and non-adoption of family planning methods in the rural and urban
respondents. The analysis reveals that 47.6 percent rural and 78 percent urban respondents
adopted various methods of family planning while 52.4 percent rural and 22 percent urban
respondents do not use any family planning measures. An attempt is also made to know thereasons for non-adoption of family planning measures. The Table 2 reveals the reason for
non-adoption of family planning. The respondents gave two-three reasons for non-adoption.
103 urban and 114 rural respondents do not adopted any family planning measure as theywant child. 241 rural respondent fear side-effects while 45 urban respondents say they didn’t
enjoy with these measures. 82 urban and 248 rural respondents say their family members areagainst the use of these measures so they are not able to use. 183 urban and 248 rural
respondents say it is against religion. Majority of them are either Muslims or Christians. 23
urban and 106 rural respondents deny the use due to ill-health. The above table also explainsthat 6.8 percent urban and 20.6 percent rural respondents face family opposition regarding theuse of family planning methods. The reason behind opposition is that old members of thefamily favour large families. The study reveals quite a large number of people do not use
contraceptives due to objections of their families.
People believe contraceptives threaten whatever little privacy they have. To use
contraceptives is to risk public disapproval or ridicules. Condoms are source ofembarrassment for them. Disposing of condoms is not easy. It is not easily perishable and has
to be buried carefully. It is extremely difficult for a woman to maintain a specific time schedule
for pills. Secondly, storing them is also a problem as in the rural areas all the household
members have equal claim and access to all rooms in the house. This disrupts regular use ofcontraceptives. In the urban areas generally every couple has a bedroom where thecontraceptives can be easily stored.

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Table 2: Reasons for Non-Adoption of Family Planning Methods
Reasons for Non-Adoption of Family Planning
Urban
Rural Resp.
Resp.
Want child
103
114
Fear of side effect1
241
Cannot enjoy with these methods
45
1
Against family members
82
248
Against Religion
183
248
Health23
106
The respondents are asked about the best method of family planning they haveadopted. The Table 3 reveals that in the urban sample 18 percent of respondents recognized‘French leather’, 20.6 percent Oral Pills, 2.5 percent self control, 17.3 percent female
sterilization and 9.4 percent considered male sterilization as the best method of familyplanning while in rural sample 24 percent respondents feel female sterilization as the best
method of family planning. The French leather method is very popular because it is cheap,
harmless and easy to use. That is why urban people have given it the second preference. The
people can also get it easily from any family planning centre or any shop. Sterilization got third
preference in urban and first preference in rural area. Sterilization was introduced during thenational emergency by school teachers, doctors, nurses and other officials visiting the villages
occasionally. Official propaganda and urban contact also exposed people to this idea.
Sterilization is a matter of shame and is considered a sinful act. It is believed to interfere with awomen’s physical capability for hard agricultural work, be it back-breaking tasks or thetransporting of heavy loads on head. The post-operative complications are feared to bring acouple’s sexual life to a virtual end. The fear of prolonged post-surgical weakness and pain
encourage few people to opt for it even when social norms expect them to stop procreation. As
the new technique, laparoscopy is becoming popular among both rural and urban women. It
has fewer complications and is convenient as well. The usual comment is, ‘It involves only aprick’. It does not require abstaining from heavy work and sexual life for long. It does not upset
the daily activities as the women have to abstain from home for only an hour or two. In somecases of laparoscopy women have dared to take the step without a clear consensus orapproval of their household members.

S. No.

Table 3: Preference to Family Planning Method
Family Planning Methods
Freq. of Respondents
Percentage
Urban
Rural
Urban Rural

1

Female sterilization

208

288

17.3

24.0

2.

Male sterilization

113

80

9.4

6.7

3.

Copper-T

122

82

10.2

6.8

4.

Oral pills

247

54

20.6

4.5

5.

French Leather / Nirodh

216

60

18.0

5.0

6.

Other

30

7

2.5

0.6

Total

936

571

78.0

47.6

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People’s Response
Inter-spouse communication helps in explaining fertility differences in India (Arora 1983, 1985,
1990 and Singh 1986). It is believed that a traditional joint family in India stands in the way ofeffective inter-spouse communication, which in turn has a bearing on the acceptance ofcontraception and hence on fertility. Bhatia and Neuman (1980) consider inter-spousecommunication as a very strong variable in influencing the decision to accept family planning.
Singh found that those respondents who had communicated about the number of children theywould like to have, had lesser mean live births as compared to those who did not talked about
it. In demographic literature, lack of communication between spouses is reported to enhancefertility and minimize its control.
In order to access the level of communication between the respondents and theirhusbands they are asked whether they have ever discussed family welfare aspects with theirhusband. In response to this 58.4 percent of the rural respondents do not talk about family
welfare aspects with their husbands while 41.6 percent accept to have such discussions. 85
percent of the respondents in the urban areas openly talk about family welfare aspects with
their husbands while 15 percent did not have such talks with their husbands. Communication
between young spouses in joint households is minimal. A couple in rural areas know thepermissible range within which their fertility behaviour can vary. They know what the optimum
number of children and sex composition should be. The young couple is aware of prevailingnorms, precepts and practices. They are able to talk about such matters freely only after they
have at least one child or have been married for several years. In the urban areas, nuclear
household exist where the husband- wife communicate more and have fewer children, thanthose in joint households.
The villager’s response to sterilization ranges from outright disapproval on the one
hand, to willing approval on the other. Survival of a few children, including sons, is a crucial
factor behind the decision to sterilize. Each of the sterilized women has on an average about
five surviving children, with nearly three surviving sons. Most of the couple having only one
son have sterilized themselves after having several daughters. Women who suffer higher
mortality of children sterilized at a later age. Another important factor for sterilization is
attainment of the status of mother-in-law. The mother-in-law prefers to end their fertility to
avoid conception. Grown-up daughter or daughter-in-law living with them are helpful inovercoming any ill-effects of sterilization and provide the required rest. A sterilized woman isbelieved to suffer pain in the limbs, including backache and other ailments that reduce
stamina. Sterilization is now overcome by Laparoscopy. It is regarded more convenient. In theurban areas two children family norms are very popular. It reduces the economic expenditures.
It improves the mother’s and children’s health as well as provides better food and clothing to
the children. Nowadays most of the educated and high class people are adopting the conceptof one child. The family elders do not have a say in this matter. The decision of family planningis the sole prerogative of the husband and wife. Husbands generally do not deny. Thus, there
is a wide difference in the family planning as well as the beliefs and norms relating to fertility
behaviour of the rural and urban women.
Conclusion
The traditional and modern societies have their own characteristic, distinct demographic andfamily planning behaviour pattern. The former favours low growth rates of population with highfertility and mortality situations whereas the latter favours a refined demographic and familyplanning behaviour with low fertility and mortality situations. These two types of societies
exhibiting divergent demographic and family planning behaviour of the people are clearlyvisible in the rural and urban areas of Ajmer District. Fertility is also analyzed in relation tocertain value-orientation of the respondents such as son-preference, child value and175

advantages as well as disadvantages of children. In the rural area the preferred number ofchildren and son-preference attitude are positively related to fertility. An attempt is made tofind out the reasons for son-preference. Parents belonging to different social strata and culture
desire them for different reasons. Sons are preferred over daughters for economic, social,religious and political reasons. Son-preference is a very important variable responsible forhigher fertility. Any society is significantly influenced to a great extent by these social
institutional structures, norms, beliefs and values of the society. The development of scienceand technology has led to a change in the attitude of the people towards fertility behaviour. But
still the access of women to these modern technologies and services is affected by a numberof socio-cultural factors. The process of modernization has led to some changes in the beliefsystem of the people. But the exposure varies from person to person on the basis of
education, occupation, family type and general awareness. The low status of women in Indiansociety, linked to traditional preference for sons, remains one of the powerful cultural barriers
to fertility reduction. Improvement in the status of women can exert negative effects on fertility
behaviour. Women should have the individual right to decide whether, when and how many
children to have. They should not be compelled to have more children against their will. As
the modern contraceptives and sterilization techniques do not have indigenous, social andcultural moorings, the people experience variety of tensions, uncertainties and indecision in
adopting them. Thus these measures should be culturally linked.
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