Couples in J&K prefer son over daughters: NHFS-5

Wajahat Shabir. Updated: 5/19/2022 11:33:33 AM Front Page

Srinagar: Although there have been improvements in the sex ratio, but an overwhelming majority still desire a male child across Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the National Health and Family Survey (NHFS) survey there is strong preference for sons in J&K and just seven percent of couples prefer more daughters than sons.
The survey also reads that fifty-four percent of currently married women and fourty-four percent of men aged 15-49 years want no more children are already sterilized or have a spouse who is sterilized.
Among those who want another child, 42 percent of women and 46 percent of men would like to wait at least two years before the next birth. Almost three-fifths of the women (59%) and half of the men (49%) consider the ideal family size to be two or fewer children.
In Jammu & Kashmir, there is a strong preference for sons. Twenty-three percent of women and 25 percent of men want more sons than daughters, but only 7 percent of women and men want more daughters than sons. However, over the four-fifth of women (84-87%) and men (87-89%) would like to have at least one son and at least one daughter, the survey reads.
Women’s desire for more children is strongly affected by their current number of sons. For example, among women with two children, about 65 percent with 1 son want no more children, compared with 38 percent with two daughters who want no more children.
Notably, the proportion of currently married women and men with two children who want no more children irrespective of their number of sons has been decreased to 60 percent in NFHS -5 from 69 percent in NFHS-4, and for men, it has decreased to 51 percent in NFHS -5 from 65 percent in NFHS-4.
In Jammu & Kashmir, unplanned pregnancies are less common now. Even then, if all women were to have only the number of children they wanted, the total fertility rate would have been considerably below the replacement level, at 1.3 children per woman, which is now 1.4 children per woman.
The total fertility rate in Jammu & Kashmir is 1.4 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of fertility.
At the same time, there is a strong preference for sons in Jammu and Kashmir. The data was released in National Family Health Survey-5 (NHFS-5)-2021-22.
As per the survey, the total fertility rate in Jammu & Kashmir is 1.4 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of fertility. Fertility has decreased by 0.6 children between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5.
The total fertility rate in urban areas, at 1.2 children per woman, and in rural areas, at 1.5 children per woman, is below the replacement level. Among births in the three years preceding the survey, 5 percent were of birth order four or higher, compared with 12 percent in NFHS-4.
The most significant differentials in fertility are by place of residence, caste/tribe, and schooling. At current fertility rates, women with no schooling will have an average of 0.7 more children than women with 12 or more years of schooling.
Similarly, other backward caste women will have 0.4 more children than women who are not in a scheduled caste/tribe or an other backward caste (a TFR of 1.7, compared with 1.3).


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