Male domination, family dynamics and the gap between wanted and actual fertility in India

In countries which are at the late stages of demographic transition, couples tend to have smaller number of children than they desire. However, the converse is true in countries which are still struggling to complete their demographic transition. In the latter group, couples tend to have more children than they actually want. According to the National Family Health Survey, 2005-06 (NFHS-3), in India the total wanted fertility rate—a measure of desired fertility—was 1.9 per woman compared with the observed total fertility rate of 2.7 per woman, showing a gap of 42%. However, there is a great geographic diversity in India as far as the state of demographic transition is concerned. As Dyson and Moore (1983) posit, there are “two demographic regimes” in India with the north characterized by high fertility and the south by low fertility. This north-south divide is also apparent in the case of desired or wanted fertility. In 2005-06, the wanted fertility rate in northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar was above the replacement level, which exceeded the actual fertility rate by about 65%. In contrast, in southern states such as Kerala and Andhra Pradesh the level of wanted fertility was much lower and it exceeded the actual fertility by less than 20%. Although over the past two decades, both actual and wanted fertil