Since India’s independence, population stabilization has been one of the prime concerns in its development agenda.

Shelter is one of the basic needs of human beings next only to food and clothing. ‘Housing’ is fundamental to the formation of individual capabilities and identities and family and community ties. It is as essential for a human being as air, water, food, and clothing.

Religion has a significant relevance in the demographic study of socio-economic groups.

Religion has a significant relevance in the demographic study of socio-economic groups.

IT was once thought that fertility below a level could not be achieved without changes in the material conditions of the people.

The recent decline in fertility in Bangladesh froin a total fertility rate of 6.3 children per women in 1975 to 3.5 in 1995 (MHPC, 1978:73; BBS, 1996) has created interest among researchers, policy makers and academicians.

In this report, we propose new measures of wanted and unwanted fertility based on actual and wanted parity progression ratios, and we apply these procedures to NFHS data for eight states in India.

Fertility in Pakistan has shown a stubborn resistance to change. Because of sharp declines in mortality following World War II, the population of Pakistan was growing at the rate of 2.7 percent per annum around 1960.