Quality Education
Determinants of contraceptive method choice in rural Bangladesh
Bangladesh has experienced a dramatic decline in fertility, unprecedented for a country with such poor social and economic conditions. The total fertility rate (TFR) declined from about 7.0 children per woman in the 1970s to around 3.5 per woman in the period 1993-1994 (ESCAP, 1981; Mitra and others, 1994). The Bangladesh Family Planning Programme is recognized as a success story in the contemporary third world (Cleland and others, 1994). However, the country still has a high population growth rate and needs to reach replacement-level fertility as soon as possible. The national contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of about 45 per cent (as of 1993) should be raised to over 70 per cent to achieve replacement-level fertility.
The “Asian miracle”
Asia has made excellent progress over the past 30 years and we must maintain the momentum into the new millennium.
Suicide in countries and areas of the ESCAP region
In view of the comparatively high suicide rates in the region, greater attention needs to be paid to the gravity of the situation.
Unmet contraceptive need in Bangladesh: Evidence from the 1993/94 and 1996/97 demographic and health surveys
Young married women deserve special consideration because unmet need is highest among them.
Family support and living arrangements of Thai elderly
The Ireland of Asia: Trends in marriage Timing in Sri Lanka
To lower the incidence of abortion, the national family planning programme needs to provide servicesalso for the unmarried young.
Family planning, work and women’s economic and social autonomy in Indonesia
The population programme should cater to the time constraints that women face and try to reduce their double burden caused by the inequitable division of domestic responsibilities.
Sex ratio at birth in China, with reference to other areas in East Asia: What we know
Society-wide efforts are needed to emphasize the value of girls and women, and to promote true equality of the sexes.
Levels, trends and determinants of child mortality in Matlab, Bangladesh, 1966-1994
There has been a substantial decline in child mortality in Bangladesh since the 1940s, particularly in the last two decades (Huq and Cleland, 1990; Cleland and Streatfield, 1992; ICDDR,B, 1984; 1994). Yet, with an infant mortality rate at about 100 deaths per thousand live births, and an under-five mortality rate of about 130 per thousand (in 1994), child mortality is still a burning problem in Bangladesh. To develop interventions to reduce infant and child mortality, it is important to know the factors responsible for mortality decline, and the factors that work as obstacles to its further decline in this country.
Determinants and consequences of early marriage in Java, Indonesia
A greater proportion of the national budget should be allocated to education and parents should be encouraged to give equal opportunities for gaining a higher education to daughters as well as sons.
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.
Population policies and programmes in the post-ICPD era: Can the Pacific island countries meet the challenge?
Innovative policies need to be incorporated into comprehensive and detailed implementation plans.
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.
A strategy for advancing reproductive health in Myanmar
The implementation of a strategic approach to the introduction of contraceptive services has had a significant impact on the development of the reproductive health programme in Myanmar. At the time of the initial Stage I activity, entitled “An assessment of the contraceptive method mix in Myamnar” (Ministry of Health (MOH) and WHO, 1997), public sector contraceptive service provision was very limited in geographic coverage, and there was no framework for the integration of contraceptive services with other areas of reproductive health. That assessment provided vital information for informing the development of many components of the reproductive health programme in a context where such a programme was in its infancy. Subsequent follow-up activities comprising behavioural and operations research have provided useful tools for improving the quality of care and for moving towards a more comprehensive reproductive health programme.
Asia’s Demographic Miracle: 50 Years of Unprecedented Change
Asia’s reproductive revolution has undoubtedly been one of the most significant and far-reaching changes ever in human behaviour
Comparison of self-reported symptoms of gynaecological morbidity with Clinical and laboratory diagnosis in a New Delhi slum
In developing countries, reproductive morbidity commonly affects the quality of women’s lives but, until recently, this form of ill health has been largely ignored both by health planners and researchers. The tools required to assess the nature and magnitude of the problem in different settings need to be developed if the rhetoric of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development is to be translated into realistic action.
Fertility patterns of adolescent and older women in Pacific island countries: Programme implications
Compared with some regions of the world, adolescent fertility in the Pacific island countries is certainly not high, but unmet need for contraception among older women is significant.
Migration in Asia after the economic crisis: Patterns and issues
The economic downturn will not have as great an impact on international migration flows as initially expected.