Fertility, fertility inhibiting effects and contraceptive use among indigenous women in Bangladesh

S. M. Mostafa Kamal, Islamic University

This paper examines fertility, fertility inhibiting effects and contraceptive use among indigenous women in Bangladesh. A Sound methodology was adopted to estimate the sample size and subjects. Information on fertility, contraceptive, socio-demographics etc. was elicited in a self-administered survey questionnaire from 865 currently married women belonged to four different indigenous communities in 2006. To estimate the total fertility rate and fertility inhibiting effects we applied Bongaarts’ proximate determinants of fertility. The estimated TFR was found to be 2.24 births per woman and contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) was 69%. The four major proximate determinants: marriage, contraception, postpartum infecundity and abortion conjointly inhibited 13.06 births per woman distributed as 48%, 24%, 15% and13% respectfully. The results of multivariate logistic regression show that place of residence, child deaths, husband-wife interaction on family planning and visitations of family planning workers are the most important determinants of contraceptive use among indigenous women in Bangladesh.