Assessment of Fertility Behaviour of Muslim Minorities: A Demographic Appraisal of Malda District, West Bengal

According to 2011 Census, the population size of Malda district was 3,997,970. Muslims form the majority of population (51.27%) while Hindus are second largest religion (about 48%) of the district. The ASFR (Age Specific Fertility Rate) of Malda is more than West Bengal in all age groups of reproductive age groups. As per Census of India (2011), the decadal growth of population in Malda (21.5%) was more than the West Bengal (13.84%) and India (17.64%). High fertility is observed among Muslims compared to other religions of the district. The analysis of OSFR (Order Specific Fertility Rate) by religion, highlights that the higher order births among Muslims is more compared to Hindus. The OSFR of Hindus and Muslims at 7th + above order are 0.70/1000 and 3.80/1000 married women respectively. The factors affecting higher OSFR among Muslims are low level of literacy, poverty, lack of family planning, high child mortality etc. Coale‘s Index of Marital Fertility (Ig) has also been applied to find out fertility variations among two major religions i.e. Hindu and Muslims in the district and it is observed that the value is highest in Muslims (0.281565). The main objective of this study is to find out fertility behaviour of Muslim minorities