Fertility Behaviour and Effect of Son Preference among the Muslims of Manipur, India

Fertility is one of the most important components of demographic studies affecting almost all aspects of human life. Present paper is an attempt to study various factors, including preference of son, affecting the fertility of Manipuri Muslims. A household survey was conducted in Imphal East and Thoubal districts where the concentration of Muslim is found to be the highest, interviewing 512 ever married women. Age at marriage, age at first conception, education, occupation, types of family, and per capita annual income are influencing the fertility rate among this population. Uses of birth control measures, consanguineous marriage, and age at menarche have no effect on fertility rate. The preference for more sons is observed in this study leading to increase in overall fertility rate.