Rate of fertility is 0.2 among illiterates compared to 1.5 among ‘literate’ women in State

Though educated women have fewer children than uneducated women in the country as a whole, Kerala paints a different picture, where the total fertility rate (TFR) among educated women is remarkably higher than that among the illiterate women.

Kerala is the only State in the country with high total fertility rate among educated women, according to the Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2020.

Number of children

The TFR is a standard demographic indicator used internationally to estimate the average number of children that a woman would have over her childbearing years (15-49 years), based on current birth trends. At the national level, the total fertility rate for women with educational status ‘illiterate’ is 3.1, much higher than the ‘literate’ group (1.9).

The fertility rate of women who have completed Class X is just 1.9 at the national level, followed by 1.7 for women with Class XII education, and 1.6 for graduates and above.

Within the ‘literate’ group, there is a general decline in fertility rate with an increase in educational status, both in rural and urban areas, barring a few exceptions.

However, the trend is diametrically opposite in Kerala, where the rate of fertility is 0.2 among the illiterates compared to the fertility rate of 1.5 among ‘literate’ women. The total fertility rate of Kerala in both categories is 1.8, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) 2019-21.

When it comes to education, 10.8% of the female population is reported to be ‘illiterate’ in the country, compared to 89.2% in the ‘literate’ category. About 19.4% have education up to Class X, 13% have education level of Class XII, and only 9.9% have reported education level of graduation and above.

Kerala has the lowest illiterates in the country, 0.4%, and has the highest rate of literate women, 99.6% in the age group of 15–49. Among the literate in Kerala, 24.2% women have an education level of Class X, followed by 27.8% with an education level of Class XII, and 29.1% are graduates or have higher qualifications.

Anu Anna Jo, senior associate, Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), Kochi, told The Hindu that there were multiple reasons for the high fertility rate among educated women in the State. First, the number of ‘illiterate’ women was significantly low in the State. Second, the nutritional status of ‘illiterate’ women had to be subjected to a detailed study, said Ms. Jo. Further, the experts also suggested that it had to be cross-checked whether the recent trend of having more children in some communities in order to get more representation and avoid the situation of below-replacement fertility had contributed to this rise in TFR among literate women.

(The News was published on The Hindu)

Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.