Islam, M. Mazharul; Mamun, Abdullah AI; Bairagi, Radeshayam : Fertility and Its Proximate Determinants in Bangladesh: Evidence from the 1993/94 demographic and health survey. Asia-Pacific Population

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. This is because such a dramatic change in fertility has occurred without a substantial improvement in socio-economic status, health conditions and otlier factors thought to be needed to bring about a fertility decline. Some argue that the decline in the fertility level was achieved mainly because of a successful family planning programme (Cleland and others, 1994). Population development programmes have, no doubt, contributed to the fertility decline. However, several biological, behavioural and cultural factors are also involved. Bongaarts (1978) termed these factors the proximate determinants of fertility, since they directly, affect fertility; all other social, economic and environmental factors affect fertility through these variables. Using data from 41 developed and developing countries, Bongaarts and Potter (1983) further obsencd that 96 percent of the variance in the total fertility rates of these populations could be explained by the four principal prominate determinants of fertility: namely, marriage, contraception, induced abortion and lactational infecundability. Because of these findings, it seems reasonable to put the main stress only on these four variables in both data collection and subsequent analysis. To quantify the fertility-inhibiting eftect of the four major proximate determinants, Bongaarts developed a model, which is now widely used in fertility analysis.