Open AccessG. Rodgen (ed) Population Growth and Poverty in Rural South Asia. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 1989.
Author(s) -
Zeba A. Sathar
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v29i3-4pp.355-357
Subject(s) - poverty , fertility , population , rural poverty , warrant , south asia , development economics , child mortality , rural area , population growth , economic growth , geography , socioeconomics , total fertility rate , developing country , demography , political science , economics , family planning , sociology , research methodology , ethnology , financial economics , law
Rapid population growth and high levels of poverty continue tobe outstanding features of the South Asian region. It is oftenacknowledged, both implicitly and explicitly, that these two featureshave close linkages especially in the case of South Asia. This bookaddresses this very issue through five case studies of Rural Bihar,Rural Pakistan, India, Rural Bangladesh, and Nepal. The book makes aninteresting contribution to the literature on population in South Asia.In particular, it has a strong empirical base. However, most of theenquiries, as is quite understandable, are limited by the type of datatypically collected in cross-sectional sample surveys. Their limitationsare pointed out by the authors themselves. Each chapter makes asignificant contribution in its own area and the country-specificresults are interesting. In Chapter 2, Rodgers, Gupta, Sharma andSharma, examine, as their title says, "Demographic Patterns and Povertyamong Households in Rural Bihar". The associations between familyplanning, fertility, child mortality, and incomerelated measures arestudied: the relationship between economic variables and fertility isfound to be weak; mortality and poverty are more directly related; andthe conclusion, therefore, is that there is no evidence to warrant theconclusion that reducing poverty (even if a desirable objective initself) would reduce fertility.