Trend and Differentials of a Socio-Demographic Scenario and Extent of Adolescent Fertility in Maharashtra, India Puspita DUTTA 1 , Sanjit SARKAR 2 1 Manager-Research, Population Service International, New Delhi, INDIA 2 International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, INDIA E-mail: puspita@psi.org.in, sanjitiips@gmail.com K e y w o r d s: adolescent fertility, childbearing, reproductive health, high-risk sexual behaviour A B S T R A C T 1. INTRODUCTION Adolescent childbearing has emerged as an issue of increasing concern throughout the developing and developed countries once with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held at Cairo in 1994. The concern derives primarily from the desire to improve the social status of adolescent girls and safeguard the health of young mothers and their children [1], [2]. “Adolescence” has been defined in several of ways in many studies depending on the subject matter of research. It has been defined as “the state or process of growing up”, “the period of life from puberty to maturity” and “the period of transition from childhood to adulthood” [3], [4]. However, the operational definition varies mainly because of the variations in defining the age range for adolescents. United Nations have taken the age range of 13 – 19 years to understand the reproductive behaviour of adolescents [5]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined ‘adolescence’ as the transition from childhood to adulthood, which is known as the period between 10 and 19 years [6]. But, the teenage reproductive behaviour tends mostly to occur in the age group of 15 to 19 in most populations. Hence, many studies pertaining to adolescent fertility and reproductive behaviour of adolescents focused on the age group of 15-19 years for women [7], [8], [9]. Adolescent childbearing has been of concern to governments for two distinct reasons – medical and socio-economic [10]. In practice, these two types of Centre for Research on Settlements and Urbanism Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning J o u r n a l h o m e p a g e: http://jssp.reviste.ubbcluj.ro This study examines trends in rural-urban differentials since 1970 and consequences of adolescent fertility in Maharashtra. Results indicate that the contribution of adolescent fertility in total fertility level is quite high in Maharashtra compared to the national value. This proportion is significantly higher in rural Maharashtra (12%) than in the urban counterpart (7%). Though the trends of adolescent fertility share to the overall fertility in Maharashtra are somehow stagnant after 1990, the rural picture is different than the urban one. The share of adolescent fertility has declined at a much faster rate in the urban than in the rural Maharashtra after 1990. Adolescent childbearing also varies along with the socio-demographic characteristics of teenage girls. It can be confirmed by three rounds of The National Family and Health Survey that early age (15-19) childbearing is more frequent among Muslims, illiterate women and those belonging to the Schedule Caste compared to their respective counterparts. Women’s work status shows significant influence on adolescent fertility. The study shows that 47% of adolescent working women began childbearing while more than 72% of non working women began childbearing in 2005-2006. To understand the extent of childbearing among adolescents, the study uses the Mean Number of Children Ever Born (MCEB) per adolescent. We found that MCEB among adolescents decreased steadily from 1992-93 to 2005-2006. Finally, it can be said that while the Total Fertility Rate is declining in India as well as in Maharashtra, the teenage fertility is still high but its contribution to Total Fertility Rate shows a decline.