Early, Shorter and Fewer? Convergence of reproductive biographies and pathways to accelerated childbearing among Indian women

Reproductive trajectories in India demonstrate an exceptional pattern not seen elsewhere in other low and middle income countries. Births are increasingly compressed in shorter intervals and many Indian women complete childbearing at very young ages. This is particularly the case in Andhra Pradesh where an intensive sterilization-driven family planning program brought down fertility rate way below replacement level in a relatively short period. The Andhra model, although successful in reducing fertility rates, is certainly extreme in India. The critical question is: to what extent other large, high fertility states follow the Andhra model? Using birth history data from three successive rounds of the National Family Health Surveys, this paper uses multi-state analysis to investigate the age-period-cohort variations determining the sequencing and timing of reproductive events in Indian states. The accelerated childbearing pattern depicted in Andhra is rapidly converging in other medium/high fertility states even among young educated cohorts of women.