Decision-making and Fertility Behaviour

Abstract

Women’s decision-making power in India is a much researched issue among the feminist social scientists. In the literature decision-making is frequently used synonymously as women’s status, women’s position in a society and in a household. Women’s decision-making play an important role in determining her reproductive health and fertility behaviour. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) incorporated some mobility and finance-related decision-making indicators to grossly quantify the level of decision-making. This article is an attempt to explore the relationship between women’s decision-making and fertility behaviour among married scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women of 15–49 years in Odisha based on NFHS-3. Results using different statistical techniques indicate that level of women’s decision-making is not influencing significantly the fertility behaviour in both the study communities. This calls for further debate and discussions on the questions put by NFHS in their nationwide survey.