FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPRODUCTIVE NORMS OF MANIPURI AND KHASIA COMMUNITY IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The study is an attempt to examine the reproductive norms of Manipuri and Khasia community in Bangladesh A sample of 113 (82 Manipuri & 31 Khasia) ever-married 15-49 aged ethnic female were selected purposively from Sylhet district. The information was recorded in a prestructured questionnaire. Simple descriptive analysis, Cross tabulation, Chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were performed for analyzing data. The current use of contraception was much higher (68%) among the Manipuri women than that from National level (62%) but the khasis current contraception was lower (58%) with respect to both National level and Manipuri women. In bi-variate analysis the chi-square test revealed five factors i.e., having children or not, number of children, Electronic devices, each outcome pregnancies from the very first and age at first marriage were significantly associated with the dependent variable contraceptive use. A binary logistic regression model was employed to identify the influence of different demographic and socio-economic characteristics on contraceptive use. Among all the important independent variables only one independent variable had significant effects on contraceptive use. Because these ethnic groups are highly motivated to keep the family size small from generation to generation as whether a respondent is literate or illiterate, rich or poor or in any other aspects. Finally, this study suggested some policy recommendations but among them specifically emphasized the active roles of their representative leaders for the development of their reproductive norms along with their socio-economic conditions.