Age, Education and Caste Differences among Couples and Their Impact on Fertility in India

Kumudini Das, Pillai's College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Navi Mumbai
Pradeep Kumar Tripathy, Utkal University

The present study aims to analyze the age, education and caste differences among the couples in India and its impact on their fertility. It is based on the data of 39292 currently married couples of National Family Health Survey-3(NFHS-3, 2005-06). The impact of gap in age, education and caste among couples on three fertility variables namely children ever born, ideal family size and desire for additional child have been analyzed separately. Odds of having ideal family size up to two increases with the increase in age difference among the couples. Education difference is showing negative and significant affect on ideal family size. Likelihood of having ideal family size up to two is 14 percent higher among the couples where the wife is from the lower caste and 23 percent higher among the couples where wife is from higher caste as compared to the couples where both are from same caste.