The fertility rate declined from 2.2 children in 2015-16 to the current 2.1 children per woman. Significantly, there is a marked decline in the fertility rate of the Muslim women across India which has played a major role in aiding this population decline. A report by Kulsum Mustafa
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-2021 data not just heralds a hope on population control it also simultaneously shatters myths about the minority’s rigid attitude against Government of India family planning programmes.
The key finding in the survey state that currently the national fertility rate is 2.1 children per woman. The total fertility rate is 2.0 children per woman. The survey states that the fertility rate declined from 2.2 children in 2015-16. The ideal or wanted fertility rate is 1.6 children per woman. It ranges from 0.9 children in Sikkim to 2.7 children in Meghalaya. According to the report between 1992-93 and 2019-21, the TFR declined from 3.4 children to 2.0 children.
The statistics need to applauded. While these results were possible because of the combination of deploying of the ‘inclusive efforts’ of the government, it cannot be denied that there is a marked decline in the fertility rate of the Muslim women across India and that they have played a major role in aiding this population decline.
“The intensive counseling done by religious preachers and welfare societies and the role of Muslim medical practitioners cannot be underrated in this fertility decline,” said, Professor Tamkin Khan, Chairperson, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, J N Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University.
According to Prof Khan, the group counseling has been an effective way of driving home the point. She said that almost 60 per cent of the patients at the Medical College are Muslims; they understand the message of birth control better when it comes from a Muslim female doctor.
“A woman is most vulnerable post partum. The pain and trauma of childbirth is still fresh in her mind so it is most likely that the family planning counseling will impact her more at this junction,” said Prof Khan stressing that the doctors use this crucial time when the woman is with them and even when she returns for checkup of herself and the baby to impress upon her the importance of keeping a gap in her next child.
To the question whether these women are not guided by the religious belief that children are gifts from Allah and that they should accept their birth graciously and not put any hindrances in the way, Prof Khan had valid arguments.
