Does early childbearing and a sterilization-focused family planning programme in India fuel population growth?
Author InfoZoë Matthews (University of Southampton) Sabu Padmadas (University of Southampton) Inge Hutter (University of Groningen) Juliet McEachran (Independent researcher) James J. Brown (University of London) Abstract Recent stagnation in the reduction of infant mortality in India can arguably be attributed to early child bearing practices and the lack of progress in lengthening birth intervals. Meanwhile, family planning efforts have been particularly successful in the southern states such as Andhra Pradesh, although family limitation is almost exclusively by means of sterilisation at increasingly younger ages. This paper examines the population impact of the unprecedented convergence of early childbearing trajectories in India and quantifies the potential implications stemming from the neglect of strategies that encourage delaying and spacing of births. The effects of adopting a ‘later, longer and fewer’ family planning strategy are compared with the continuation of fertility conc
