Abstract

Under certain simplifying assumptions, an analytical model for describing the variation in the number of daughters at home in Central India recorded in Demographic and Health Surveys, 2005-06 is constructed. The model involves two parameters and these are estimated by method of moments. The asymptotic expressions for estimates of the parameters are also derived. The suitability of the model is investigated using the DHS data on factors such as type of place of residence, religion, wealth index, highest level of education, marital duration (initial and higher),and castes (SC,ST and OBC). The results reveal that the categories belonging to rural areas, Muslim Community, lower wealth index, no education, higher marital duration and scheduled tribe provide the higher average number of daughters at home in the kin desire of sons they have more number of children and hence they have more number of daughters consisting of higher average number of groups per woman in comparison to other groups. The χ2 values do not seem to be significant at 5% and 1% level of significance.

Author: H. L. Sharma

Received on: January, 2013

Accepted on: March, 2015