Examining the Effect of Household Structure on Reproductive behavior and Health of Indian Women

The concept of family in India has been changed with the increase in urbanization, industrialization and technological development. Initially the structure of family was created to preserve the common culture among the family members. Generally it is observed that fertility level and behavior of women is strongly shaped by the structure of family. Based on such a hypothesis present study is trying to examine the effect of family structure on reproductive behavior and health status of currently married women. Various studies have tried to analyze the fertility differential by type of family and concluded that higher number of children ever born in joint family. But the present study, which used the data from third round of National Family Health Survey, 2005-06, proved that although the use of fertility control method is high in nuclear family but fertility rate is still high. Study also reveals that women of joint family get benefited in terms of receiving health care services and assistance. Thus there is a need for in depth study to see the impact of family structure on women’s reproductive behavior and health status and to examine whether all families have homogeneous characteristics or this similarity is due to program implementation.