Three major factors that determine the change in population of any country viz. Fertility, Mortality and Migration. Of these, migration is not a major determinant of population change in Indian context. So, a detailed view of Mortality and Fertility assumes significance in the context of India.
Fertility
The following are the basic determinants of fertility.
Demographic Determinants
- Age Composition: If a country has a more youthful population, then it tends to be a leading contributor to the world’s population growth. Many Asian countries, African and the Latin American countries fall in this category.
- Duration of Marriage: There exists a positive correlation between fertility and duration of effective marriage. For example, in India, incidence of early marriage is a common phenomenon and hence greater is the fertility rate.
- Balanced Sex Composition: The balanced sex composition is a major demographic determinant of fertility. For example, the male dominated urban centres shows low birth rate when compared to rural areas.
- Degree of Urbanization: Usually, the urban areas have lower birth rates when compared to rural areas. In urban areas, it has been observed that various socio-economic factors create ethos for lower fertility rates.
- Participation of Women in Economically Gainful Activities: It has been observed that the contribution of working women to human fertility is low when compared with the non-working females. Exposure to the outside world has made the working women to get more awakened socially and economically and thus influences their fertility behaviour.
Socio-cultural Determinants
- Religious Background: Almost all the religions in the world except Buddhism are opposed to the deliberate control on human fertility. But the degree of control varies with religions. For example, Kingsley Davis in his study has observed that birth rates of Muslims in India are significantly higher than that of the Hindus living in similar environments.
- Educational Level: Level of Education, particularly of girls, has been observed to have a far reaching impact upon the fertility patterns. In fact, education in general helps in bringing down the birth rate.
- Age at Marriage: It has been widely observed that there exists an inverse correlation between birth rate and the age at the time of marriage. In Indian context, it is estimated that the birth rate can be brought down by at least one-third if all females in the country marry after attaining the age of 19.
- Traditions & Customs: It has been found that societies that allow polygamy, polyandry, loose marital ties and liberal sexual behaviour are often characterised with low fertility levels due to greater incidence of venereal diseases.
- Primacy of Individuals: The status of man, woman and even the child is an important determinant of a family size. In India, the low status of women is an important factor for high fertility.
- Government Policies: The population policies adopted by various countries have a direct bearing upon the fertility rates prevailing in those countries. For example, China’s strong population policy has helped it in bringing down its birth rate.
Economic Determinants
- Income Level of Family: It has been observed that there exists a negative correlation between the income level of a family and the family size. People belonging to the middle income group seem to apply the strictest control over the size of the family. On the other hand, among the lower income families where children are considered as a potential source of augmenting the family income, minimum restrictions are placed on the family size.
- Standard of Living: In General, the poor people from across the world exhibit high birth rates. Similarly, the rich people tend to show low birth rates.
- Dietary Habits: Studies conducted in animals shows that the higher intake of protein tends to reduce fertility.
Other Causes
- Type of Family System: People living in joint family system tend to have more children. In the joint family system, the young couples receive help and support from the elders in the family to raise their children.
Factors responsible for high fertility rates among Indian Women
- Universality of the institution of marriage: In India, marriage is considered as a necessity for women.
- Lower Age of Marriage: In India, girls are traditionally married at a very early age. This makes Indian women biologically capable of bearing more children.
- Desire for Sons: Preference for a male child is deeply ingrained in the Indian society. Birth of a son is considered important for extending the family line and for taking care of the parents in their old age.
- High IMR and CMR: High infant and child mortality rates are also an important determinant that determines the size of the family. Women bear more children in the hope that at least few of them will survive up to adulthood.
- Environmental factors: The countries with hot climate tend to have a high fertility rate when compared with countries with cold climate. Hence, India being a country with hot climate tends to have high fertility rates.
- Illiteracy: It has been observed that there is a direct link between female education and family planning. According to Census 2011, the female literacy percentage in India is just 65.46.
Mortality
The following are the basic determinants of Mortality
Demographic Structure
- Age Structure: Age structure is considered as a prominent demographic factor governing the incidence of mortality. Mortality rates tend to decline as the child matures and tends to increase when a person is in the middle age. Hence, high mortality rates are observed in those countries that have a large number of people falling in the middle and old ages.
- Sex Composition: It has been found out that the Mortality rates of males and females are different due to varying resistance power of the two sexes. In case of females, the mortality rates increases due to variety of reasons like malnutrition, high maternal mortality rate, low status of women, neglect of female children etc.
- Degree of urban Development: In the historic past, it has been observed that the mortality rate in urban areas to be higher than that of the rural areas. But at the present, this gap is increasingly getting narrowed down and in some cases the positions have got reversed. In the least developed countries, urban mortality rate is found to be lower than the rural areas. But in case of the developed countries, reverse is more true. Generally, the factors like high per capita income, high literacy, and enhanced awareness about diseases have helped to lower down the mortality rate in urban areas.
Social Factors
- Incidence of infanticide: The prevalence of infanticide increases the mortality rate in a society.
- Availability of medical facilities: Mortality rate has a positive correlation with the number of persons per physician.
- General conditions of nutrition, housing and sanitation,
- Literacy level of the population: Mortality rate is inversely correlated with literacy standards.
- Religious beliefs.
Economic Development
- Standard of living: Rich people tend to have balanced diet and has the capacity to avail medical facilities. Once, the medical facilities are made universally available then the inequalities in the mortality rates will decrease.
Other factors
Apart from the above factors, other factors like natural calamities, wars, epidemics etc. tend to cause large scale deaths.