Determinants for desire of an additional child in Urban-West Bengal: A regime of low fertility

The most striking feature of low fertility is its divergence in the developing world. In these regions couples are going for one child and most of them are reluctant to have the second one. The main focus of the study will be to see the process and of emergence of low fertility pattern in Urban Bengal and its implications. Principle data sources will be National Family and Health Survey, Sample Registration System (SRS) and Census of India, 2011. Trends in these will be examined and differentials will be analyzed using logistic and cox proportional hazard regressions. On the whole about 8.4 percent of women remain childless till the end of the reproductive years. A large proportion of the women may remain so voluntarily. It is also seen that concentration of women with one child is high among women with higher standard of living, higher education, greater exposure to mass media, not working women and Hindu women. The preliminary results from hazard model indicates women with high educational level and subsequently starting first child bearing at higher ages and sex of the previous child with no child mortality experience in the past determines the transition to second or third order child.