Abstract
Abstract Regional disparities in reproductive behaviour are well established in India: the recent National Family Health Survey (IIPS 1995) observes a total fertility rate of 3.39 for the country as a whole, ranging from 3.6 to 4.8 in the five large northern states of Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to between 2.0 and 2.8 in the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. The total fertility rate is as high as 5.2 in Uttar Pradesh, but as low as 2.5 in Tamil Nadu; age at marriage is 17.9 among rural women in Uttar Pradesh but 20.0 in Tamil Nadu. Likewise, wide differences are observed in rural infant mortal ity rates (126.5 and 76.2 per 1,000 live births, respectively), current contraceptive use rates (16.7 per cent and 49.2 per cent, respectively) and ideal family size (3.5 and 2.1, respectively).
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