This volume brings together 13 well-researched and original essays which describe and analyse the trajectory of fertility decline in the south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Documenting the fact that the fertility decline occurred in regions with vast differences in development indicators, the contributors argue that this transition must be understood as a cumulative result of several factors including family planning policies, socio-economic transformation, and changes in social perceptions towards fertility, contraception, marriage, family and child rearing. Combining various qualitative and quantitative techniques with field studies and historical analysis, the contributors go beyond the formal tools of demography and develop an original Geographical Information System (GIS), a spatialized database encompassing south Indian districts.

Describes and analyses the corollaries of declining fertility in Southern India to discover how familial and gender relations are affected by the new situation of women giving birth only to 2-3 children.

The central theme of this book deals with the contemporary perspectives on diversity in development cum moderization and their differential influence on contrasting fertility behaviour in the advanced regions of southern Kerala as against the less progressive northern area.

Fertility, Biology, and Behavior: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants presents the proximate determinants of natural fertility. This book discusses the biological and behavioral dimensions of human fertility that are linked to intermediate fertility variables. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the mechanisms through which socioeconomic variables influence fertility. This text then examines the absolute and relative age-specific marital fertility rates of selected populations. Other chapters consider the trends in total fertility rates of selected countries, including Colombia, Kenya, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, France, and United States. This book discusses as well the effects of deliberate marital fertility control through contraception and induced abortion. The final chapter deals with the management of sex composition and implications for birth spacing. This book is a valuable resource for reproductive physiologists, social scientists, demographers, statisticians, biologists, and graduate students with an interest in the biological and behavioral control of human fertility.

This compendium of nineteen chapters, written by South Asia scholars and international authorities in the field of population, provides an overview of a range of issues surrounding fertility change in South Asia over the past decade.