Fertility Levels and Perceptions of a Smaller Family Size: Do Migrant and Non-Migrant Women Exhibit Distinct Patterns in Bhubaneswar City, India?

Sibabrata Das, Ravenshaw university
Sumita Bera, Ravenshaw University

Using a mixed method approach, this paper investigates the differences in fertility level between migrant and non-migrant women and their perception of a smaller family size in Bhubaneswar, an eastern Indian city. Findings indicate a general acceptance of the small family size norm in the city, with an average of 1.8 children ever born per woman. Yet migrants and non-migrants have a clear difference in fertility level; native women have fewer births than migrant women. Migrant women from non-slum areas have a fertility level comparable to that of natives. This pattern stems from the fact that Native women have a higher age at marriage, a higher age at first birth, a smaller ideal family size, and a higher socio-economic status than migrants in the slums of Bhubaneswar. Migrants living in non-slum areas have already adopted urban society's reproductive behaviour, which migrants in slums are catching up with. Most couples, regardless of migration status or age, now see having more children as a burden they cannot or will not handle, particularly due to the rising cost and necessity of education for their children, as well as the decline in parental expectations, especially for comfort and care in their later years.

Keywords: Fertility, Mixed methods research, Internal Migration and Urbanization

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