While the Census, which has a wide coverage, is generally regarded as the official marker of demographic trends in the country, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a pointer to the future. The results of the NFHS-5 are out, and as we celebrate the fact that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has fallen to below-replacement fertility levels in the country, signalling the beginning of a demographic transition, it is also important to pay attention to the disparities among States. For instance, Bihar (3.0), Uttar Pradesh (2.4) and Jharkhand (2.3) continue to have TFRs that are significantly above replacement levels, even as most of the other States in India now have a TFR below 2.1.
Across South India, not too long ago, it was common to come across people with first names like Kuppa (garbage) and Penta (dungheap). Such names were deliberately given by desperate parents in the hope that illness and death will not take their child away.
High mortality rates kept the population size artificially low, yet, on average, women had many more children than they do now because they knew that only a few of them would survive till adulthood.