Fertility of Chenchu Women - Research Paper-20

Abstract

The population structure of the Chenchus reveal that nearly 43 out of every hundred individuals are children below 15 years old aged person above 55 years. if those groups are considered as dependent, nearly every second person in the population is a dependent. The population is very young typical of Primitive Communities experiencing high fertility and high child mortality. There are 942 females for every 1,000 males. Marriage is universal. The usual marriage age for girls is between 15 -19 and for boys it is about 20-24 years. The marriages are contracted usually in related circles preferably between cross-cousins. The families are nuclear and the average size of the house hold is 4.62. The infant mortality is very high being 165.68 in all age cohorts. However, the INR is found to show a declining trade over years. It came down from 179.31 among the pre 1960 birth cohort to 140.42 in the post 1970 birth cohort. The decline during the recent years is very high among children born to young and very old mothers and the death rate is found to increase with the order of births. As against the Maternal Mortality Rate of 4 per 1000 live births in the whole of India, the MMR among the Chenchus is 44.4 i.e., 10 times higher than the all India rate. The survey results reveal that the parents are able to provide due to extreme poverty and thus the chances of their survival are considerably less than among the well cared children. The overall pregnancy wastage of 4.74 is rather low. The wastage in terms of abortions and stills births is found to be more among young mothers and the 4th and 5th order pregnancies. Pregnancy termination analysis revel that the women are experiencing one-pregnancy on the average for every two years during their reproductive period, characteristic of high fertility and absence of family limitation. The sterility rate of about 1.44% women may be considered good. The current level of fertility among the Chenchu females is high as indicated by the general fertility rate of 238, total fertility rate of 6724, Gross Reproduction Rate of 2824 reveals that out of the average 7 births 3 are daughters, general martial fertility rate of 266, total marital fertility rate is 7441. The age specific as well as age specific married fertility rates indicate that the groups maximum number of births occur among women in the age 25-29 years. The maximum parity specific fertility rate did not indicate any reduction among women having ore living children, as the community has no idea about family limitation.