Infertility has been relatively neglected as both a health problem and a subject for social science research in South Asia, as in the developing world more generally. The general thrust of both programmes and research has been on the correlates of high fertility and its regulation rather than on

It is now common practice to infer the social status of women from their demographic characteristics. Yet it is not so easy to read through demographic progress, in terms of declines in mortality and fertility, to make unambiguous judgments about trends in women's social standing.

After Ritter and Hinkelmann, Kirk and his Colleagues Kirk also reported that in matings where the father is in-compatible with the mother with respect to the ABO groups, the children show a higher frequency of the Hp1 gene.

Status literally means position in relation to others. The status enjoyed by women in any society is an index of the standard of its social organisation.