Gender Preference among Married Women in Kolkata Metropolitan Slum of India

Sanjay kr Saha¹, Medhatithi Barman², Avishek Gupta³, Piyali Dutta Chowdhury⁴, Gautam Sarker^5, and Ranabir Pal⁶

¹Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura, West Bengal, India

²Chitta Ranjan Seva Sadan, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

³Midnapur Medical college, Midnapur, West Bengal, India

⁴Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

⁵MGM Medical College & LSK Hospital, Kishanganj, Bihar, India

⁶All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Cite this paper

Sanjay kr Saha, Medhatithi Barman, Avishek Gupta, Piyali Dutta Chowdhury, Gautam Sarker and Ranabir Pal. Gender Preference among Married Women in Kolkata Metropolitan Slum of India. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2015; 3(4A):6-11. doi: 10.12691/AJPHR-3-4A-2

Abstract

Preference for Male baby reflects underlying socioeconomic and cultural patterns and prevailing inequity between genders in many societies in India. A cross-sectional population based study was conducted in the urban slum of Kolkata in eastern India on socio-demographic variables of gender preference among 122 married women using a predesigned, pretested, semi-structured data collection tool. Maximum participants were less than 35 years - 25-34 years (50%) and 15-24 years (45.08%); Female children were predominant; one-third (33.16%) were born between 25-34 age of mothers followed by 10.56 percent from 15-24 age. Among respondents, majority were Hindu (78.68%); from Joint family (54.10%); Unreserved caste (56.57%); Primary school literates (60.65%). Female children were more among Hindus (54.55%), in nuclear families (53.88%), among middle and secondary level of literate mothers (58.23%). Gender had no significant role in treatment seeking behavior though male children had significantly more completion of immunization. In the continuation of education male children received significant advantages. Majority (58.20%) responded with two as the ideal family size; yet all the participants with single living daughter desired another child, preferably a son though 10 percent desired a daughter. Among the participants having one living son and no daughter, looked-for another child (16%), another son (36%) and rest (48%) a daughter. The study identified male gender baby preference among married women related with socio-demographic variables.

Keywords

Male Gender Baby Preference, Married Women, Kolkata, India

Copyright

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