Telangana sees rapid decline in fertility rates

Many have maintained that a complex interplay of factors is influencing and causing the fertility rates to drop in Telangana and rest of the States in South India.

Hyderabad:  In the last few decades, Telangana State and other regions in South India have witnessed a sharp decline in fertility rates.

While the trend of drop in fertility rates is universal and across multiple Indian states, so far public health specialists and population geneticists have not successfully isolated the factors causing the sheer drop in fertility rates.

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Many have maintained that a complex interplay of factors is influencing and causing the fertility rates to drop in Telangana and rest of the States in South India.

The drop in fertility rates, however, is expected to have a long-term impact, as States in the coming decades will have to grapple with an aging population, which puts a lot of strain on social security and increased health care costs.

Way back in 1992-93, when the first National Family Health Survey (NFHS-I) was done, the then united Andhra Pradesh had a fertility rate of 2.6, which gradually decreased to 2.3 in NFHS-2 done in 1998-99 and 1.8 in NFHS-3, which was done in 2005-06.

Since NFHS-3, the fertility rate in united Andhra Pradesh has held steady at 1.8. Immediately after the State formation, Telangana recorded an already diminished fertility rate of 1.8 in NFHS-4, which continued to remain the same in NFHS-5 (2019-21).

“I don’t think one single factor can be given for the drop in fertility rates in the two-Telugu States. In the last few years, families have evolved, couples are now working, age of getting married is changing, eating habits too have witnessed a sea-change. I would say that the modern living or lifestyle has played a big role in the drop of fertility rates in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh,” says Superintendent, Niloufer Hospital, Dr T Usha Rani.

Some factors influencing the drop in fertility rates include the success of family planning programmes that have, over the years, promoted smaller families, improved infant mortality rates, socioeconomic changes like urbanization, rise in women workforce, improvement in education among women that usually causes delay in childbearing and lifestyle factors.