SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES

Population problems as well as the status of health in India have religious, regional, ethnic, social class and urban-rural dimensions. National Family Health Survey-III (Das et al., 2001), NSSO's survey on morbidity, health care and the condition of the aged (NSSO, 2006), and smaller surveys have established the nature of variation in population and health parameters according to socio-economic and cultural characteristics of people. Eleventh Five Year Plan has stressed the social class differences in economic conditions as well as demographic behaviour. These differences, their causes and consequences, need to be explored further.

COMPLEX LINKAGES

Studies have consistently shown that the relationships between socio-economic factors and demographic factors do not have a fixed pattern. The relationships which exist at the micro level may be different from those existing at the macro level. One has to study the linkages between population and other factors at different levels. Yet, an overwhelming majority of people in both urban and rural areas want a small family. Some people may still want a large family (Mukherjee, 1983) but their number is very small and is falling. Some want large family because of high infant and child mortality. With time, as mortality declines their number will increase further. Most people today have knowledge of and access to contraceptive methods but there are many who do not have access to acceptable contraceptive methods. As said earlier, in India the unmet need for contraception (i.e., percentage of couples who do not want more children but are not practising family planning) is quite large (about 20 percent).