On the World Population Day this year, there were two new features which are welcome: the first is the concern for environment in the context of population growth; and the second is the candid admission by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare that we must get rid of the tyranny of fami

In countries where emergency contraception is offered, its availability and use vary widely, according to such factors as regulations and policies regarding the method, providers' and women's understanding of and attitudes toward it, and cost.

This paper demonstrates that an accelerated hazard framework is more appropriate than commonly used proportional hazard framework to model the timing of marriage and timing and spacing of children.

Throughout history, women have practiced forms of birth control and abortion. These practices have generated intense moral, ethical, political and legal debates since abortion is not merely a techno-medical issue, but, "the fulcrum of a much broader ideological struggle in which the very meanings

Once effective methods of fertility limitation become widely available within a population, the impact of fertility intentions on subsequent fertility becomes a matter of both theoretical and practical importance.

A number of recent studies [A] [D] have documented evidence to show that couples have a decided preference for a particular sex combination of children. For example, in many South Asian countries, including India, there is a strong preference for sons over daughters.

Governmental efforts towards fertility reduction often face a dilemma: babies who are planners' worry are also a parent's hope and joy (Mandelbaum 1974:110). The beliefs of the people on this subject and what planners believe ought to be done may on occasion diverge substantially.

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.

The rapid rate of population growth in India is adversely affecting every sector of its economic and social development and the country seems to be in the grip of the vicious circle of economic backwardness-high rate of population growth more economic backwardness.

During the last two decades, a large number of studies have been published on slums. The studies have usually been conducted by various agencies as a part of successive population censuses, or as a part of general physical and socioeconomic surveys.