Bangladesh
Family planning and fertility in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has achieved a considerable increase in contraceptive use over the past decade resulting in an appreciable decline in fertility. The programme efforts have been largely facilitated by major changes over the past two decades both positive and negative. Positive changes include female education female empowerment female mobility and access to the media. Negative changes include increasing landlessness and rising unemployment and underemployment. Also other changes have taken place such as change in the family size norm and a decline in infant and child mortality (Caldwell and others 1999). In addition fertility decline is also due to other proximate determinants besides contraceptive use.
The social and demographic correlates of divorce in rural Bangladesh
Divorce is one of the processes of marriage termination and normally carries with it the loss of the potential for reproduction. The degree to which the reproductive life-span will be affected depends on how long the divorced woman remains outside of a conjugal relationship and on whether or not she remarries. Because a large proportion of divorce occurs at the younger ages in Bangladesh the time spent in the divorced state may have a considerable impact on fertility. As suggested by Shryock and Siegel (1975) divorce statistics can be applied indirectly in fertility analysis. Davis and others (1956) recognized the changing structure of the family the entry of women into labour force and an emphasis on personal gratification as products of urbanization and industrialization. However their outlook has little relevance in a non-industrialized society such as Bangladesh. According to Malaysia’s 1970 census the incidence of divorce is greater in rural areas than in urban areas (Jones 1980). Similarly in Bangladesh the divorce rate is higher in rural areas than in urban areas for every age group (Ahmed and Chowdhury 1981). It is widely believed that the presence of children in a family deters divorce in all societies. According to Jacobson (1950) three-fifths of divorced couples in the United States of America had no children. Reyna (1979) found that 49 per cent of the women divorced were without children.
The determinants of first and subsequent births in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh
Increasing urbanization will hasten the current trend in fertility reduction.
Adolescent childbearing in Bangladesh
In recent decades adolescent childbearing has emerged as an issue of increasing concern throughout the developing and the developed world (Jones 1997; Shaikh 1997; Islam and Mahmud 1996). There is a growing awareness that early childbearing is a health risk for both the mother and the child. Also it usually terminates a girl’s educational career threatening her future economic prospects earning capacity and overall well-being (United Nations 1995). Thus adolescent childbearing has significant ramifications at the personal societal and global levels. At the personal level childbearing at an early age can shape and alter the entire future life of an adolescent girl. From the perspective of societies and governments adolescent pregnancy and childbearing have a strong and unwelcome association with low levels of educational achievement for young women which in turn may have a negative impact on their position in and potential contribution to society. Usually in both developed and developing countries the rates of population growth are more rapid when women have their first child before they are in their twenties (Senderowitz and Paxman 1985; Mazur 1997). The period of adolescence encompasses the transition from childhood to adulthood during the second decade of life. It is one of the most crucial periods in an individual’s life because during adolescence many key social economic biological and demographic events occur that set the stage for adult life.
Effects of the productive role of Bangladeshi women on their reproductive decisions
The role of reproductive health care in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity has been widely reported; in most developing countries however women still have little control over their sexuality and reproductive decisions (Cook and Fathalla 1996; Hadi 1999). This adverse situation has direct impacts on fertility maternal morbidity the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and neonatal mortality (Heise Moore and Toubia 1995; Sadik 1998; Berer 2000). Although feminists have long been struggling to improve conditions for women reproductive rights issues have only recently been getting recognition in demographic discourse. The long-term effects of violations of reproductive rights are not yet adequately understood although it has been reported that abused women might have developed multiple medical complications such as chronic pelvic pain and somaticized symptoms. Although sex is a natural part of life the ability of women to determine when they should copulate has a strong positive association with the prevention of unwanted pregnancy (Cook and Fathalla 1996).
Client satisfaction with sterilization procedure in Bangladesh
The findings dispel the misconception that the decline in the number of sterilization cases in the late 1980s was due to growing dissatisfaction among sterilized clients
Levels and trends in post-partum amenorrhoea, breast-feeding and birth intervals in Matlab, Bangladesh: 1978-1989
The adoption of modern contraceptive methods appears to have more than compensated for the sharp drop in the length of post-partum amenorrhoea.
La réalisation des objectifs énergétiques durables au Bangladesh
Costs of rearing children in agricultural economies: An alternative estimation approach and findings from rural Bangladesh
The keys to fertility decline would appear to lie in structural changes in the economy the satisfaction of existing demand for family planning services and generation of additional demand
Early marriage as a risk factor for mistimed pregnancy among married adolescents in Bangladesh
Community resources and reproductive behaviour in rural Bangladesh
Social and economic development as well as more widely diffused family planning services will contribute to a higher level of contraceptive use.
The effect of social interaction on fertility goals and behaviour among women in Bangladesh
Until recently much of the literature concerning population issues in Bangladesh has stressed the presence of conditions that would inhibit a fertility transition — limited opportunities for women in the job market son preference (Lindenbaum 1975) the value of children for ameliorating risk (Cain 1986) and providing familial labour (Caldwell 1982) the poorly managed national family planning programme (Hartman 1987) and high infant mortality. Bangladesh is still largely impoverished and agricultural infant mortality is still high education levels among women of reproductive age remain low and traditional cultural institutions strong. Yet in this unlikely setting the total fertility rate has declined from around seven in the late 1970s to well under four in 1994. The fertility transition in Bangladesh was achieved almost exclusively through the use of birth control methods (modem and traditional) with use increasing dramatically from 8 per cent in 1975 to 45 per cent in 1994. Since that time fertility has remained constant while contraceptive use has increased to 53 per cent. (Razzaque and others 2002).
Promoting knowledge of sexual illnesses among women in Bangladesh: Can non-governmental organizations play a role?
The sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are significant causes of morbidity and mortality among women of reproductive age. Not only do some of the STI-related complications result in spontaneous abortion infertility ectopic pregnancy and cervical cancer but common STIs can also cause long-term impairment of reproductive health and in crease the risk of HIV transmission from one person to another (Cameron Simonsen and D’Costa 1989; Wasserheit 1992; Population In formation Program 1993). It has been estimated that sexually transmitted infections and their complications collectively rank second in importance in the world among diseases in women of reproductive age (World Bank 1993). Ignorance of and misinformation on sexual illnesses are of ten considered power fulbarriers to resolving such health problems in the traditional communities (UNAIDS 1998).
Reproductive preferences in Matlab, Bangladesh: Levels, motivation and differentials
Improvements in educational and employment opportunities for women and raising their status are needed to bring about a rapid decline in desired family size.
Contraception among limiters and spacers in Matlab, Bangladesh
One of the purposes of family planning programmes in developing countries is to provide for the unmet needs of couples for contraception. In KAP (knowledge attitude and practice) surveys a large proportion of women usually state that even though they want no more children they are not using contraception. Under such circumstances it is usually assumed that if contraceptive methods were to be made easily available to them many women with unmet needs for contraception would adopt those methods. In reality however this does not always happen. Nevertheless in many East Asian countries following the introduction of family planning programmes fertility has reached the replacement level. The fertility transition is under way in some Asian countries but it has yet to begin in others (Caldwell 1993). In fact such variations in fertility despite the wide-spread availability of contraceptive methods raises the issue of whether existing family planning services need to be modified.
A multilevel modelling approach to the determinants of urban and rural fertility in Bangladesh
When a data set is generated from a country-wide survey it is important to test it to determine whether or not fertility variations are due to the structure of the data. Generally small area data are more or less homogeneous in nature. This observation is supported by Garner and Diamond (1988) who pointed out that individuals who share similar characteristics related to fertility behaviour such as living in the same geographical area are likely to act in a similar fashion. There may be fertility variations between small areas in Bangladesh but these have been generally ignored in previous studies (see for example Islam and Khan 1991 1995; Khan and Raeside 1994; Amin and others 1995).
Age at first marriage and its determinants in Bangladesh
Asia is in the midst of social transformations that are dramatic in pace and effect. Families schools and labour markets are all changing generally in ways that broaden opportunities for young people and may ultimately alter relationships between the sexes. An important element of these changes is the pattern of delayed marriage coupled with higher rates of permanent celibacy that have emerged throughout much of the region (Xenos and Gultiano 1992).
Fertility and its proximate determinants in Bangladesh: Evidence from the 1993/94 demographic and health survey
Contraception plays the most prominent role in reducing fertility in Bangladesh.
Dynamics of poverty, development and population mobility: The Bangladesh case
Over the last decade the landscape of Bangladesh has changed remarkably with the persistent mobility of people. This is an emerging reality in the development discourse of the country which reflects the dynamic interactions between spaces and poverty. In response to improvements in markets communications and transport and a better access to electricity migration has assumed great importance in constructing livelihood strategies of the people and economy of the country. In light of the changing situation in Bangladesh links between migration and development need to be re-examined. Moreover there is a considerable vacuum to understand migration-poverty interface in the country (Chaudhury 1978; Chaudhury and Curlin 1975; Islam and Begum 1983; Krishnan and Rowe 1978; Rahman and others 1996; Hossain and others 1999; Afsar 1999; Hossain and others 2003a). The main purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of population mobility on poverty alleviation and document how that impact is changing the development parameters of the country. More specifically the paper examines the impact of migration on the migrants and their families at destinations and then on overall rural economy and urbanization in order to capture the dynamic interactions between population mobility and other development parameters. It also assesses how far poverty alleviation strategies capture those realities and the gaps. Policies that should be adopted to address the gaps and the emerging realities are also recommended in the conclusion.