Ruag
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 754
- Reaction score
- 0
I'm currently on vacation in India and visited my cousin sister who works for a NGO in rural eastern Uttar Pradesh. During my conversation with her, she told me that Muslims in the region face severe socio-economic challenges because many Muslim couples have relatively much higher number of children.
That got me thinking and I asked our maid (who is a Muslim) here in Gurgaon how many children she has? Seven was the answer. My next question was obvious - how do you manage to support your family? I was then told that two of her daughters (aged 13 and 15) also work as maids in other houses. So, there goes the education for her children. She earns about Rs. 6,000 a month and her husband earns Rs. 8,000. That much money was sufficient to support a family of five. But the fact that this family has nine members means that those two young girls have to work instead of going to school.
High fertility rates is a problem with Hindus too. But a bit of research revealed some astonishing figures --
Fertility transition in south India - Google Books By Christophe Guilmoto, Sebastian Irudaya Rajan pg 186:
In 1991, Hindu fertility rates were 2.2 while Muslim total fertility rates were 3.6.
Many would argue that lower literacy and poorer socio-economic conditions means Muslims will have higher fertility rates. But, that same source clearly highlights that Scheduled Castes (who also face much dire socio-economic conditions; and perhaps worse than an average Indian Muslim) have a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.52 for 1998-99 compared to Muslims' 2.46.
If one really wants to highlight the socio-economic problems of Muslims as a factor for higher TFR, consider this - Turkey, a high income country with a Muslim majority population, had a TFR of about 2.2 in 2008!
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/59/40192107.pdf
Much wealthier Saudi Arabia has a TFR of 3.35 for the 2005-10 period!
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf
So, I'm thoroughly confused as to why these statistics indicate that Muslims have higher fertility rates even in regions with much better socio-economic conditions and literacy rates. I hope maybe my Pakistani friends here could shed some light on this. In my opinion, it is important to understand the factors here because a high population growth rate can spell severe environmental and economic challenges for the coming generations (especially in an already crowded South Asia).
That got me thinking and I asked our maid (who is a Muslim) here in Gurgaon how many children she has? Seven was the answer. My next question was obvious - how do you manage to support your family? I was then told that two of her daughters (aged 13 and 15) also work as maids in other houses. So, there goes the education for her children. She earns about Rs. 6,000 a month and her husband earns Rs. 8,000. That much money was sufficient to support a family of five. But the fact that this family has nine members means that those two young girls have to work instead of going to school.
High fertility rates is a problem with Hindus too. But a bit of research revealed some astonishing figures --
Fertility transition in south India - Google Books By Christophe Guilmoto, Sebastian Irudaya Rajan pg 186:
In 1991, Hindu fertility rates were 2.2 while Muslim total fertility rates were 3.6.
Many would argue that lower literacy and poorer socio-economic conditions means Muslims will have higher fertility rates. But, that same source clearly highlights that Scheduled Castes (who also face much dire socio-economic conditions; and perhaps worse than an average Indian Muslim) have a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.52 for 1998-99 compared to Muslims' 2.46.
If one really wants to highlight the socio-economic problems of Muslims as a factor for higher TFR, consider this - Turkey, a high income country with a Muslim majority population, had a TFR of about 2.2 in 2008!
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/59/40192107.pdf
Much wealthier Saudi Arabia has a TFR of 3.35 for the 2005-10 period!
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf
So, I'm thoroughly confused as to why these statistics indicate that Muslims have higher fertility rates even in regions with much better socio-economic conditions and literacy rates. I hope maybe my Pakistani friends here could shed some light on this. In my opinion, it is important to understand the factors here because a high population growth rate can spell severe environmental and economic challenges for the coming generations (especially in an already crowded South Asia).
)
