Fertility of woman in okhalkanda block of Nainital District in Uttarakhand

Fertility plays a significant role in Demography. It is the important factor which is responsible for unusual changes in population distributions in the Okhalkanda block of the Nainital district. This study examined the fertility differentials in the rural population of Okhalkanda block (Nainital) in Kumaun region of Uttarakhand by taking into consideration the various demographic variables such as-category, occupation, education, nature of family, present age, age at marriage and age at first & last delivery of the respondents along with the husband's education, occupation and whether the husband has migrated or not. In order to examine the differentials in fertility of women in study area, a regression model approach is used to measure the extent of the interaction of different type of effects of various demographic variables. The relationship between the fertility levels and demographic variables shows that female literacy as gone higher were negatively related to fertility and an increase in age at marriage significantly reduced total fertility of women in the study area. It is a well known fact that higher numbers of children leads to hardships and more responsibilities for the respective parents so an ideal situation would be minimum possible number of children. Study concludes that this may be achieved by providing higher educational facilities and better job alternatives to the girls.