Economic growth due to agricultural mechanisation and automation brought about by the Green Revolution increased crop yield exponentially, reducing the need for many farmhands. For example, Philippines’s TFR stood at 6.96 in 1960 but since the introduction of high-yielding IR8 rice, the TFR successfully dropped to 3.2 in 2005. Furthermore, in countries such as India, where a major part of the population engages in subsistence and commercial farming, reproduction is seen as a means of procuring enough manual labour on the farm. An increase in farming technology through development would significantly decrease the number of people needed on farms, thus, bringing down the TFR significantly since one no longer has the obligation to produce more children to help out on the farms. Thus, it can be seen that through economic development, the need to have a child reduces, leading to a lowered total fertility rate.
Another widespread development in the world, which has contributed to decreasing fertility rates, is the emancipation of women. The earlier the age one gets married, there would be a higher likelihood of a higher fertility rate. For many LDCs, marriage is almost universal in which there are many cases of children as young as 13 marrying due to specific cultures. For example, in India, prearranged marriages are common. However, in DCs, the pattern is that marriages are late in life or non-existent. As education and opportunities for employment increase for people, they become more financially and economically independent. There is more choice and freedom as to whether they want to get married or not, unlike in LDCs where marriage is almost bound by social and cultural norms. The status of women with regards to both work and education is different in differing countries with various cultures. Due to greater and more equal opportunities nowadays, the cultural and social restraint on women is far less than it used to be. More women are employed, make independent decisions, and as such the age of marriage increases. Women who are highly educated with stable careers tend to have lower fertility rates, and with later marriages, fecundity is also likely to fall. This is evident in the South Indian state of Kerala, which saw a successful TFR decline from 4.1 in 1970 to about 1.7 now. With a high literacy rate of 88%, women in Kerala are even valued as assets who bring a bride price to their families. More highly educated women are more likely to be engaged in paid employment outside the home. An educated woman is likely to take into account the loss of income that will result from having more children and may therefore decide not to have large numbers of children. Besides this opportunity cost, better educated women also feel it necessary to spend more time with children and are less likely to leave young children in the care of older siblings. This time cost leads educated women to have fewer children than uneducated women. Thus, it can be seen that with the higher social status of women in society, it would also result in the increase in socioeconomic choices for women, including childbirth. Thus, emancipation of women can result in the decrease in fertility rates due to the higher social status.
Another factor that can affect fertility rates include population policies implemented by the government. The most infamous example of anti-natal policies is China’s One-Child Policy, restricting the number of children urban couples can have to only one. Flouting the policy incurred heavy fines of up to 30% of annual income. The main objective of the policy was to reduce the rapidly growing population with a TFR of 3 in 1980 so as to alleviate its impact on future social services such as healthcare and education, as well as cutting off possible social impacts such as that of increased unemployment, slum development and poverty. It was extremely, and perhaps all too successful, with the TFR dropping to 1.8 in 2008. Furthermore, the annual growth rate fell from 2.23% in 1970 to 0.63% in 2005. Even though the population momentum for growth had set in, the One Child Policy successfully diverted a demographic disaster for China. Despite criticisms for its harsh, draconian policies, it is widely seen as successful in preventing a population explosion in China. Also, India has attempted to target conception variables though anti-natalist policies, by sponsoring the provision of contraceptives and family planning education. As a result, contraceptive use has more than tripled from 13% of married women in 1970 to 49% in 2009, and the TFR has halved from 5.7 in 1966 to 2.7 in 2009. However, the extent to which it is the government’s efforts that have played the main role in reducing fertility is questionable. Many of these successes in fertility reduction have been accompanied by economic growth, increasing education levels and an overall rise in affluence. This in turn has caused the cost of living to rise, as well as the social status of women to increase in standing, requiring smaller family units. Perhaps the governments’ anti-natal policies have only assisted in speeding up this trend which has been already underway. Thus, population policies can affect fertility to some extent, though it may be catalysed by a country’s economic development.
Thus, it can be seen that fertility decline is indeed an inevitable consequence of economic development. Though, female emancipation and population policies is not directly related to economic development, the root cause of these factors is still the development of one’s economy. Economic development is a given in order for the increased social status of women as people in LDCs often hold cultural beliefs that men should have more rights compared to women. Thus only though economic development can one undergoes education and understands the rationale behind the importance of the emancipation of women in these countries. Other factors such as female emancipation and anti-natalist policies have played key roles in fertility decline; however they have been enabled and made more effective by economic development.
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