Srinagar Aug 04: Ruqaya Jan, a 41-year-old woman from North Kashmir’s Baramulla district got married at the age of 36 in 2015. She has been more interested in building her career instead of getting married at a young age. However, for the last more than five-years she is struggling to conceive and has been visiting doctors in and outside the valley.
“I worked for a few years at a private company in New Delhi. After my father’s death nine years ago, I had to return home as there was no one to look after my mother. For a few years, I was struggling to find a job in Kashmir till I reached 36. Now for the last five years, I am struggling to conceive,” she said in a dejected voice, who is now a housewife.
Doctors have told her that late marriage is the main reason that she is not able to conceive.
Experts have been saying that late marriages have become extremely common in Kashmir leading to increasing infertility in the valley.
In Kashmir, some say low fertility is due to infertility; others attribute it to family planning.
Sadiya Jan, a 38-year-old married woman from Central Kashmir’s Srinagar has given birth two children who are in the age of 8 and 5. “I did not want more than two children. In today’s times it becomes very difficult to take care of more than two children especially for working women,” she said, who is a teacher by profession. These are two diverse cases which indicate the factors for falling fertility levels in J&K.
Barring two states and two union territories, J&K has witnessed the lowest fertility rate across India.
The Union Territory has witnessed a sharp decline in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 0.6 percent since 2015. According to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the TFR in J&K was 3.6 in 1991 and reduced to 1.4 in 2019-20 which indicates a woman here gives birth to less than two babies in her lifetime. Urban areas of J&K have only 1.2 percent TFR while in rural areas it stands at 1.5 percent.
Only two small states of India, Goa, Sikkim and two union territories Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have lower TFR than J&K.
The national average fertility rate is 2.0 with the highest in Bihar at 3.0 according to the survey.
The TFR is defined as the average number of children that would be born to a woman by the time she ends childbearing.
Experts give varied reasons from social, economic factors coupled with changing food habits to contraceptive use which have led to decline in fertility rate.
A gynecologist said there are various factors for decline in fertility among men and women in Kashmir.
“Infertility is one of the reasons for decline in TFR. Infertility is on the rise in Kashmir especially among women who are suffering from stress or due to hormonal imbalances,” she said.
Besides infertility, she cited changing lifestyles, late marriages, use of contraceptive, obesity, environment and psychological factors for low TFR in Kashmir.
Adding further, she said poverty, unemployment, economic prosperity are main reasons for delay in getting married resulting in low fertility rate. “People should avoid late marriages as after 35 chances of conceiving also reduce. People should also follow a healthy lifestyle to remain physically and mentally fit,” she suggested.
