Dynamics of Family Building Process: A Marriage Cohort Analysis in Bihar and Kerala

The prime objective of present study is to analyze the dynamics of family formation in India from a marriage cohort perspective and comparison of these aspects for the two Indian states: Bihar and Kerala, the states having vast differences between them with respect to age at marriage and childbearing, progression of births etc. The family-building process is studied under following points: initiation of reproductive life and tempo of childbearing and transition from one birth to the next and so on. For studying the dynamics of progression from one birth to the next, parity progression ratio (PPR) approach is used and for recent marriage cohorts PPR’s are estimated using a technique that makes use of the truncated distribution of closed and open birth intervals. It is observed that the age at marriage has risen marginally though that is not reflected in a corresponding rise in age at first birth in Bihar. But Kerala reflects the rise of 4-5 years in age at marriage and childbearing from earlier to recent marriage cohorts. PPR’s for successive marriage cohorts are decreasing continuously with time. Probabilities of progression towards higher order births are substantially lower in Kerala as compared to Bihar for all marriage cohorts.