Gladis S Mathew
Title
A comparative analysis of reproductive measures and predictor variables among three tribes of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India
Document Abstract
An attempt has been made to understand the reproductive behaviour of
the Gond (146), Birhor (151) and Kawar (78) tribes of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. The
study focuses on the role of socioeconomic and cultural factors responsible for the
variation and continuum in woman’s fertility and from live births to child mortality.
It involves a mixed-method approach to assess the measures of fertility and
mortality by using the standard formula after Barclay (1958) and Bogue (1969).
Despite the child–woman ratio being high among Kawar (1857.14) followed by
Birhor (833.33) and Gond (766.66), it is observed that the total fertility rate is high
among Birhor (11.8) followed by Gond (9.8) and Kawar (8.5) indicating women
experiencing a greater number of live births, especially among Birhor. Further, the
mortality rates indicate that neonatal deaths (93.75) among the Kawar tribe, and
under five mortality (148.14) among Birhor are high. This can be attributed to the
influence of socioeconomic and cultural factors. It reveals that fertility is high
among the study population(s) to substantiate the prenatal and postnatal loss.