IASSI Quarterly
Year : 2005, Volume : 23, Issue : 3
First page : ( 127) Last page : ( 151)
Print ISSN : 0970-9061.

Marital status of the scheduled caste people of a compact area in Assam (An empirical micro-study)

Bezbaruah Debendra Kumar, M.A., Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

Post Graduate Department of Economics, Dimoria College, Khetri, Kamrup, Assam

Introduction

Objectives

The objectives of the study are:

1. to find out the attitudes of the S.C. people towards the traditional norms of marriage, inter-caste marriage, widow-re-marriage, divorce and the dowry system

2. to show an association between the level of education and inter-caste marriage of the S.C. adults

3. to examine the effective use of family planning among the S.C. adults and

4. on the basis of the findings derived from the study, we venture to give some suggestions to social scientists, economists and the policy makers of both the state government and the central government so as to eradicate the evils of untouchability by encouraging inter-caste marriage, widow-remarriage and spreading education among them.

Hypothesis

The study is based on the following null hypotheses, which have been tested by using the Chi-square test:

1. There is no association between the level of education of S.C. people and their tendency to enter into inter-caste marriage i.e. both the variables are independent of each other.

2. There is no association between the level of education and marriage arranged by the parents but in consultation with their children concerned.

3. There is no association between the level of education and their mental attitude towards approval of the divorce system.

4. There is no association between the level of education and their tendency towards widow-remarriage.

5. There is no association between the level of education of the S.C. adults and the effective use of family planning methods.

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Research Design

Exploratory research design consists of three areas of study

Review of Literature

Since our research study is related to the marital pattern of the S.C. people of a compact area of Assam, we have selected sources of materials from the publications about the attitudes of the Scheduled Caste people towards inter-caste marriages, widow-remarriages, the divorce system, dowry system and the attitudes of the parents about mate selection by their children. These attributes are also collected from the respondents by asking some subjective questions. We have briefly reviewed over two dozen books, articles and papers by eminent sociologists, educationists and others. After a close perusal of important reference volumes like ‘Survey of Research in Sociology and Social Anthropology (ICSSR: 1970) we are in position to trace out the list of the most relevant research studies given in Notes and References which we have briefly reviewed. These research studies have helped us either in formulating the hypothesis or in clarifying the basic concepts related to the article.

Experience of Persons

Besides our sample households we have met some of the experienced persons (like Sri Baneswar Das, Lohit Das an inhabitant of Nalbari town whom I wish to thank for his contribution in the article) having knowledge of the related subject so as to gather information as well as to put some subjective questions to him about different aspects of the marital pattern of the S.C. people of the compact area.

Case Study

Here case study means a unit of the study. It consists of three communities of Scheduled Caste people of a compact area of Nalbari district of Assam viz. Kaibartas, Namasudras and Hiras.

Experimental Research Design

It shows the causal relationship between the two variables like level of education and the opinion of the respondents regarding the different aspects of the marriages of the S.C. people under study. For instance, in our study area the hypothesis that we made on the basis of exploratory research design is supposed to be proved by using the Chi-square test in terms of experimental research design.

Descriptive research design

This is descriptive in nature in the sense that it describes the attributes regarding the change of different aspects of marriage of the S.C. people under study. It includes the following areas of study:

Universe

It consists of the marital pattern of the S.C. people of a compact area of Assam.

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Sample Units

Area of Study

A Compact Area of Six Villages: As per the 1991 census report, in Nalbari district of Assam there are as many as 396 S.C. villages of which 125 S.C. villages are scattered and 271 villages are in 55 clusters i.e. compact areas. Out of these we have purposively selected only one compact area of six villages (1. Barhelas, 2. Dahudi, 3. Ghilajari, 4. Lokhapur, 5. Kheluwa and 6. Kaihati) for the purpose of our study. Geographically that area is at about 91.3 East of longitude and 27.38o North of latitude. It is situated at a distance 18–20 km. From the district head quarter town of Nalbari. It is situated at the Khetri Dharmapur Mauza of Paschim Nalbari Development Block and Development Circle of Nalbari district.

Sample households

According to the 1991 census report in the compact area there are as many as 665 heads of the Scheduled Caste households belonging to three communities viz. Kaibarta, Namasudra and Hira. Educational level-wise these heads of the households have been stratified into four strata viz, illiterate, primary, secondary and higher education. Through the stratified random sampling we have selected 20 households from each stratum to serve the purpose of our study. Thus Table 1 shows the sample households against the total number.

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Data Collection

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Results and Discussion

Marital status

Table 2 presents the marital status of the S.C. people of the compact area.

Table 2 shows that out of 752 S.C. population, only 299 persons or 39.8 per cent of the total population are married of which 143 or about one fourth of the total are male and 156 or 52.2 per cent of the total married persons are female. It is interesting to point out that of the 143 male married persons 139 persons are still enjoying conjugal life, while 4 of them are widowers. Similarly of 156 married women 141 i.e. 90.4 per cent are still enjoying conjugal life, while 4 of them are remarried after being widowed, 9 of them are widows and 2 of them are divorced.

It has been observed from Table 2 that there are as many as 453 unmarried persons (i.e. 60.2 per cent of the total population) of which 373 i.e. 82.3 per cent of the unmarried are said to be minors and below marriageable age, while the rest 80 i.e. 21.4 per cent of them are marriageable. Again of the minors, 243 persons are males and the rest 130 are females. This shows a predominance of the males. But below the marriageable are group, distribution between males and females is almost equal i.e. 42 males against 38 females.

Further it has been observed that the marital status among the different communities is also not uniform as can be seen from Table 3.

Table 3 also reveals that the Kaibartas have a better marital life than those of the Namasudras or the Hiras. The problem of marriage of the marriageable is more intensive among the Hiras than among the Namasudras, while the Kaibartas have no such problem at all at present. It has been observed from the table that except the Kaibartas and the Hiras, among the Namasudras 2 females i.e. 0.3 per cent of the total have been divorced and widow marriage has taken place among the Namasudras (i.e. 4 widows i.e. 1.4 per cent of their females).

Table 4 presents marital status of the S.C. people of the compact area according to age and sex. Table 4 reveals that out of 299 married S.C. persons about half of them married at the age of 15 to 20 years. Slightly more than a third were married when they were at the age of 20 to 25 years, a ninth of them at the age of 25 to 30 years and the rest 3.3 per cent were married at an age above 30 years.

In case of the married S.C. women numbering 156, 108 i.e 69.2 per cent were married at an early age of 15 to 20 years, only 25 persons i.e. 16 per cent married at the age of 20–25 years, 14 i.e. about 9 per cent married at the age of 25 to 30 years, and 9 women married at the age above 30 years. Here in this age group the percentage of married females is found to higher than males among the S.C. people of the compact area. So our common belief that female marriage is always earlier than that of the male is not found valid among the S.C. communities in the compact area.

Table 5 presents the distribution of married S.C. people according to age and sex and reveals that early marriage at the age of 15–20 years is more common among the Namasudras, especially among the females.

Among the Kaibartas, this concentration is in the age group of 20–25 years. Table 5 indicates the fact that early marriage is found to be more common among females than among males of all S.C. communities of the compact area.

Age difference between husband and wife

A marriage age difference between the husband and wide is a must. The marriage age of both the male and the female has increased in recent times because of the legal restriction on age viz. 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. But now-a-days because of expansion of education among the different sections of the people the boys are set to marry at the age of 25 years to 32 years and the girls at the age of 18 years to 25 years.

Table 6 presents the age difference between the couple from the point of view of husbands of the S.C. people of the compact area. It reveals that in the compact area, out of 143 married men the maximum number of 45 i.e. 31.5 per cent have an age-difference of 4 to 5 years. The maximum difference of 6 years or above is recorded in the case of 11 married men with 7.7 per cent and minimum difference of 0–3 years is recorded in case of 16 married males. Of the total males married, 40 i.e. 28.0 per cent have an age difference of 3–4 years and 21.7 per cent i.e. 31 persons have an age difference of 5 to 6 years. In the two age groups (viz. 3 to 4 years and 4–5 years) the age difference between the husband and wife is found to almost identical in proportion among the Namasudras while this age difference is equal among the Hiras. But the concentration of age difference in the age group of 5 to 6 years is found to be more among the Kaibartas. We can thus conclude that there is always a difference between the ages of the husband and the wife and the age of the husband is found to be more than that of the wife.

Time or order of marriage

Table 7 shows the percentage distribution of the married persons against their order/time of marriage.

From table 7 we see that out of the total married men 92.3 per cent married once, while 7 per cent for the 2nd time. Second time marriage has been seen to be more among the Hiras, though it is not absent among the Namasudras but among Kaibartas, a second time marriage is completely absent.

Attitudes toward inter-caste marriage

Inter-caste marriage means the union of a man and woman belonging to two different castes. According to sociologists inter-caste marriage existed in ancient India. Mahabharata describes a number of inter-caste marriages. For instance, Santanu, the progenitor of the Kuru-Pandavas first married Ganga and later Satyavati, a fisherwoman, both outside his caste. During his time Manu has mentioned two forms of inter-caste marriage, viz. anuloma marriage in which a higher Varna man marries a lower Varna woman and pratiloma marriage in which a lower Varna man marries a higher Varna woman which he has bitterly criticised. But subsequent commentators have accepted this.

Through in traditional Indian society there was no permission for inter-caste marriage, yet with the passage of time such restrictions are gradually disappearing due to the flexibility of the caste system and other factors like education, urbanization, industrialization etc. As a result, inter-caste marriages are slowly becoming prevalent among almost all the communities of society at present.

In our compact area, however, marriage outside the caste is still very rare, because of the low literacy rate, lack of urbanization and a strong sense of traditionalism. Yet whatever inter-caste marriages have taken place, not because of the openness of the society, arranged by the parents, but either because of falling in love between the boys and the girls and marrying themselves at their will or being arranged thereafter by the parents or because of spreading of education to some extent. From Table 8 we can observe that out of a total of 143 married, inter-caste marriages have taken place among only 7.0 per cent of the S.C. population belonging to the educated class while intra-community marriages have taken place among 93.0 per cent of the total S.C. population.

Caste-wise intensity of inter-caste marriage is found to be more among the Hiras (33.3%) than the Namasudras (4.7%), while no family is found to have entered into an inter-caste marriage among the Kaibartas.

Generally, the couples of the inter-caste marriage among the communities have not celebrated the marriage function either according to social norms or they are seen in the area celebrating their marriage function long after commencement of their conjugal life or even after the birth of their first child. They are seen performing the celebration just to enter the social arena to preserve the religious sanctity and social customs of the S.C. people of the area.

Subjective assessment of inter-caste marriages

In the subjective assessment of inter-caste marriage the respondents of our sample have been asked a question namely, ‘Do you think that inter-caste marriage is desirable? ‘Answer to the question by the respondents have been represented in table 9 in a three point rating scale viz. approved, disapproved and indifferent.

Table 9 reveals that of 133 sample households only 8.3 per cent are in favour of inter-caste marriage i.e. they prefer to give them social recognition and about 79.7 per cent of them do not approve of intercaste marriage while 12 per cent of them have shown only social indifference towards the phenomenon.

It has been hypothesised that there is no association between the level of education of the S.C. people and their tendency to enter into inter-caste marriage i.e. both the variables are independent of each other. The application of Chi-square test on the data given in Table 9 shows that the calculated value of Chi-square is 78.82 while the table value of it for 6 d.f. at 5% level of significance is 12.5. Our hypothesis is rejected because the calculated value is greater then the table value of the Chi-square. Hence we can conclude that there is a significant association between the level of education of the S.C. people and their tendency to enter into inter-caste marriage. Out data given in the table reveals that as the level of education of the respondents' increases from primary to secondary, and then to higher education, the percentages of opinion towards the approval of inter-caste marriages are also increasing.

Table 9 reveals the opinions of the respondents of different levels of education towards inter-caste marriage. Out of 79 illiterate sample heads of the households, 5.1 per cent want to approve it and 6.3 per cent have shown indifference towards it. But the rest have shown strong disapproval.

On the other hand of the 26 primary education heads of the sample households, 11.5 per cent are in favour of inter-caste marriage, 26.9 per cent of them are seen to be indifferent and the rest have shown disapproval. Further it has been observed that of the education heads of the secondary level 12.5 per cent have favoured inter-caste marriage, while 25 per cent of the highly educated heads of sample households are in favour of inter-caste marriage.

Disapproved

About four fifths of the households do not at all approve of inter-caste marriage on the following grounds:

1. Such marriage particularly of the girls leads to social insults to the affected ones. The girls are often humiliated by mentioning their caste or creed.

2. Secondly it would ultimately lead to the destruction of his or her own dynasty (i.e. Banshanash).

3. Thirdly a section of them thinks that inter-caste marriage particularly of their men folk leads to the deprivation of their marriageable girls from marriage within their own group.

4. There is yet another reason, that sometimes the offspring of the couples may have to suffer from social humiliation in turn in the future.

Approved

On the other hand, a segment of 8.3 per cent of the heads of 133 households have opined in favour of inter-caste marriage on the following grounds:

1. Inter-caste marriage among the S.C. people and between them and other caste people will help significantly in the process of assimilation between communities and in the process of equalization of social status with other castes and help in social advancement.

2. Lastly, it helps in eradicating the evil of untouchability in society.

Economic Incentives to couples of inter-caste marriage

The Government of India provides economic incentives under the scheme “Grant-in-aid to inter-caste marriage couples and parents” to encourage inter-caste marriage with a view to eradicating the caste system and to create a casteless society.

Rule 2 (a) of the inter-caste marriage Rules, 1983 provides that under this scheme financial assistance will be awarded to each intercaste married couple between a caste Hindu and Scheduled Caste:

1. Not exceeding Rs. 5000/- to the person who performs negotiated/contracted social marriage as per religious rites and prevailing customs.

2. The Grant of Rs. 1000/- (one thousand) will be awarded to the eligible couples who perform inter-caste marriage between Scheduled Castes and others.

Rule 2 (b) says that under the scheme financial assistance will be awarded to those parents of a bridegroom and bride @ Rs. 2000/- in rural areas and Rs. 1500/- in urban areas who take the initiative in performing an intercaste marriage in rule 2 (a) (i) of the scheme.

Rule 3 provides that the amount of awards referred to in rule 2 will be apportioned as follows:

The grant-in-aid under the scheme mentioned above is only for the first time marriage. The Planning Commission approved Rs. 1 lakh as grant-in-aid to inter-caste married couples and parents in the year 1980–81 (Government of Assam Deptt. of W.P.T. letter No, T.A.D./S.C. (465/83).

Here is the compact area it may be pointed out that the additional opportunities provided to the couples or parents of inter-caste marriage by government are not as yet received by any one of them. This is due to the non-reporting of the marriage to government in time. But outside the compact area, especially in the Tihu-Barama Community Development Block the couples of the inter-caste marriage received the monetary benefits given by government. Table 10 shows the amount of money received by married couples from government through the welfare office, Nalbari, Assam. According to the rules of government Rs. 500/- is to be paid to the inter-caste married couples in cash and another amount of Rs. 500/- is to be paid in kind i.e. as National Saving Certificate (NSC), if the marriage is registered in the registrar's office. But if marriage is celebrated observing social customs, the married couple will get Rs. 1000/- in cash and N.S.C. of an amount of Rs. 4000/-.

From the points outlined it is clear that government provides more money to married couples who celebrate marriage according to their social customs, so as to meet the cost of the celebration, or to encourage traditional forms of marriage for encouragement of social equality.

Attitudes towards mode of arranged marriage

In the traditional joint family, it was normally a custom of parents to find out mates for their children and the children were expected to accept their choice. Further, in the past in our society, importance was given to the agreement of marriage between two families rather than to the two young people involved. At that time there was no scope for love as a necessary element of selection of a spouse. The ideals for marriage had no regard for individual feelings.

With the passage of time, however, there has been some change in the traditional norms of marriage because of factors prevailing among them like spreading of education, urbanization and industralisation. Thus under the changes of our Hindu society in all respects in recent times, society including parents of marriageable children are seen to respect the opinion of their children towards their own choice of marriage.

In the process of mate selection we find significant changes in the following three areas:

1. Field of selection: It has become wide enough to include inter sub-caste and intermarriages.

2. Party to selection: Parents no longer take an active role in the selection of life partners for their children. The practice of young men and women selecting their life partners by themselves is becoming popular today.

3. Criteria of selection: Much importance is paid to individual interests, preferences and considerations rather than to family considerations.

Here we have to see how much the S.C. people are changing their own attitude towards the responsibility of selecting one's consort in an arranged marriage. Hence questions have been put to them about the ultimate responsibility in selecting a consort i.e. whether it is done jointly by the parents and their children or it is completely left to the children.

It has been hypothesised that there is no association between the level of education and the marriage arranged by the parents but in consultation with their concerned children. But our hypothesis is rejected because the calculated value of Chi-square (i.e. 14.8) is greater than the table value (i.e. 12.5 for 6 d.f at 5% level of significance). We therefore conclude that there is an association between the two attributes. Table 11 shows decision making in selecting consorts in case of arranged marriages in the compact area according to the educational level of the respondents.

Table 11 also shows that 63.9 per cent of the total heads of the households have favoured arranged marriages by the parents but in consultation with their concerned children. More than a fifth of the heads of the households want to select the consort at the sole responsibility of the parents. This was the mode of arranged marriages prior to independence. Of course, some exceptions had also been recorded even at that time. During the emergence of the new mode of arranged marriage, the responsibility for selecting the consort that is lying with the concerned children is a new trend that we have seen only in recent times.

At present in the compact area as many as 15.0 per cent of the sample households have opined in favour of the mode of arranged marriage. Another important feature that we can discern is that the first mode of arranged marriage is restricted to particularly the illiterates and primary educated people, while the other two modes are prevalent amongst all the people of different educational levels. Even among the illiterates, decision making is done by 57.0 per cent of them in consultation with their children and 11.4 per cent of them allow the children to do it themselves. Of course, the percentages concerning these two modes are seen to be increasing as the educationing level is improving. Yet we doubt that a time will come when this is to be done completely by the concerned children.

With regard to the role of the girl children in selecting their consorts it has been observed in the compact area that the girls have little role in selecting their consorts. In our society including the high caste people the responsibility for selecting the consorts lies almost completely on the parents and male children. Except for a few cases, the girls of both S.C. people and other castes and their parents have to play a passive role in selecting their consorts.

Attitudes towards divorces

Marriage among the Hindus is a religious sacrament from the point of view of the sacred beliefs and values involved in it. In terms of marriage both husband and wife are bound to each other until the death of one or the other and the wife is expected to be bound to her husband even after his death. In this way there was no sanction for divorce in the Hindu ideals of marriage. In Hindu law there was no such thing as divorce. The Hindu marriage act of 1955 has recognised the right of a Hindu woman to divorce her husband. It also permits intercaste marriage. Thus divorce is a legal dissolution of marriage. With the introduction of this legislation, the general attitude to divorce is expected to have changed considerably. The custom of divorce existed only among the lower castes. The spreading of education among them in recent times has led them towards an approval of the divorce system. Here it has been hypothesised that there is no association between the level of education and their mental attitude towards the divorce system. In order to test the hypothesis the respondents have been asked a question on three rating scale, whether they have approved or disapproved or are indifferent towards divorce. In Table 12 data regarding the opinion of the respondents towards divorce have been presented in accordance with the level of education of the respondents.

The application of the Chi-square test on the data given in table 12 shows that the calculated value of Chi-square (i.e. 33.9) is greater than the table value (i.e. 12.59 for 6 d.f. at 5% level of significance). So our hypothesis is rejected and therefore we conclude that there is an association between the level of education of the S.C. people and the their approval of the divorce system. Thus social approval of the divorce system is the result of modern education and its consequential mental attitude. Table 12 also indicates that as the level of education increases from primary to secondary and then to higher education, the opinion of the respondents towards approval of divorce increases. For instance, Table 12 reveals that the highly educated people are more in favour of divorce than the less educated or uneducated ones. Out of 133 heads of the less educated households, however, 104 i.e. 78.2 per cent have disapproved of the system of divorce.

Those who are inclined to approved of the divorce are seen to be mostly among the educated section of either the secondary or higher level. Percentages of respondents showing indifference to the system are found to be more among the illiterates and the groups of a lower education level. No persons with a higher education has expressed his indifference. Yet divorce is a contradiction to the Hindu way of life.

Attitudes towards widow remarriage

Traditionally speaking, the Smrities have not favoured the remarriage of widows. A true wife was required to preserve her chastity as much before as after her husband's death. According to Vatsayan, sex relations with a widow is in the same category as with a prostitute. Manu and Yajnavalkya even say that the widow should not mention the name of another man after her husband's death. According to A.S. Altekar, though widow remarriage prevailed in vedic society, yet the custom of widow remarriage disappeared gradually and it was considered to be wrong as early as 200. A.D. But due to the untiring efforts of Raja Rajmohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati and Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, the Hindu widow remarriage Act was passed in 1856 when Lord Bentink was the Governor General of India. This Act declared the legal validity of widow remarriage and laid specific circumstances for its validity. The system of widow re-marriage locally known as ‘Dhemna Aha’ or ‘Dhemna Rakha’ (the system by which a widow could come at her own sweet will to another man generally a widower to live a conjugal life) has been seen in our society for a long time. This system of ‘Dhemna’ has been legalized by the aforesaid Act.

So the attitude towards widow remarriage is found to be more positive among the different sections particularly among the illiterates. Attitudes of the respondents towards widow remarriage have been shown in Table 13.

Table 13 shows that three-tenths of the respondents have disapproved of the system, while 58.6 per cent have approved of it and the rest are seen to be indifferent. Table 13. also reveals that the higher the level of education, the more they become ready to answer to the system as disapproved or they become indifferent to it. But most of the illiterates and primary education ones approved of it and tried to implement it according to their necessities.

It has been hypothesised that the higher the level of education of the S.C. people, the lower is their tendency towards favouring windowremarriage. To test the hypothesis we took the null hypothesis that there is no association between the level of education and their tendency in favour of widow-remarriage. We have applied the Chi-square test on the data given in Table 13. and found that the calculated value is 39.23 and for 6 d.f. at 5% level of significance, the table value of it is 12.59. Since the calculated value is greater that the table value of Chi-square, our hypothesis is rejected and we therefore, conclude that there is an association between the two attributes.

Attitudes towards the dowry system

According to Mr. Radin ordinarily dowry is the property which a man receives when he marries, either from his wife or from her family. Webster's New Dictionary has defined dowry as the money, goods or estates, which a woman brings to her husband's house in marriage generally on demand. In brief dowry is that money, property or valuables, which the brides party has to give to the bridegroom or his party in exchange for marriage.

In our society in recent times dowry in the true sense of the term is absent. Even before independence the system was just the opposite. The bridegroom had to pay ‘Gadhan’ (an amount of money and some other valuales which had to be paid by the bridegroom or his parents to the bride as a price for her body) to the parents of the bride in exchange for the marriage. Still we have a system, of ‘Telar bhar’ or ‘Joran’ — an amount of certain goods like oil, vermillion, ornaments, clothes, beetlenuts, fish etc. which are to be paid to the bride by the house of the groom before the commencement of the marriage which may be regarded as a representation of the old system. At present, however, the bride is married at a time in which the essentials for her life are given along with her which could not be termed as dowry. Of course recently, dowries have been introduced in the society of S.C. people also; particularly when an education groom or his parents demand properties at the time of his marriage.

Family planning measure

The limit on the size of the birth rate depends on the use of family planning measures like contraceptive pills, loop, Nirodh etc. The most effective and reliable method is sterilization. Family planning is a method for married couples to limit the size of their families. The effectiveness of family planning measures depends on education. The higher the level of education of a group of people, the higher is the effectiveness of the measures and the lower is the size of the population.

In the compact area it has been hypothesised that there is no association between the level of education of the S.C. adults and the effective use of family planning methods.

To rest the hypothesis we have applied Chi-square test on the data given in Table 14 and the calculated value of it as 38.9 and the table value for 3 d.f. at 5% level of significance is 7.82. Out hypothesis is rejected because the calculated value of Chi-square is greater than the table value. Hence we can conclude that the association between the level of education of the S.C. adults and the use of family planning is significantly positive. Hence the user of family planning measures varies in accordance with the educational background of the S.C. adults. The higher is the level of education of the S.C. adults, higher is the use of family planning measures. Table 14. reveals that 75 per cent of the heads of the sample households of higher education have adopted family planning measures, while out of 79 the illiterate sample adults, only 13.9 per cent have adopted these measures.

As a whole, of the total married adults, 31.6 per cent have used family planning methods.

Table 15 presents the percentages of users of family planning methods according to community and sex. Caste-wise users of family planning methods are found to be more among the Kaibartas (62.5 per cent) than that of the Hiras (31.8 per cent).

Table 15 shows that sex-wise 43 i.e. 30.1 per cent of the total 143 male married persons adopted Nirodh and self-control measures while 52 i.e. 33.3 per cent of the total 156 female married persons used contraceptive pills and sterilization.

From the above analysis we can observe that in the compact area S.C. communities have started to adopt various family planning measures to restrict the size of their family. This has been possible because of their growing social awareness due to the spreading of education among the communities.

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Concluding observations

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Suggestions

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Tables