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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2016
The original aim of this investigation was to examine the data on fertility history of Indian couples collected in the 17th Round (September 1961-July 1962) of the National Sample Survey (NSS) for studying the influence of the sex of the first two children born to a couple on the incidence of a third childbirth within three years of the second child-birth.
(1) Such sex-selective recall lapse was observed in the earlier National Sample Survey Report No. 7, “Couple Fertility”, by Ajit, Dasgupta et al, New Delhi, Ministry of Finance, Govt, of India, 1955 Google Scholar.
(2) Op. cit., Chap. 9.
(3) A general account of the findings of this enquiry will be available in a forthcoming National Sample Survey Report No. 154, “Tables with Notes on Couple Fertility”, New Delhi, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt, of India.
(4) Kendall, M. G., Rank Correlation Methods, 3rd Edition, London, Charles Griffin & Co., 1962, Chap. 6Google Scholar.
(5) Strictly, one should add the square roots of the single d.f. χ 2’s for individual states, preserving the sign of the difference n1l - n2l . The sum ∑ χ comes out as 49.83 rural India and 35.96 for urban India; and these, on division by √ 19 and √ 18 give 11.43 and 8.48 respectively, which referrred to the standard normal distribution, point to the high significance of the differences.
(6) We refrain from quoting statewise results; the interested reader may utilize the counts presented in Appendix Table A.1.
(7) Freedman, D. S., Freedman, R. and Whelpton, P. K., Size of Family and Preference for Children of Each Sex, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. LXVI, pp. 141–146, September 1960 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The authors note greater expressed expectations for additional children among couples having all children of the same sex than among couples with children of both sexes. The study was based on a national probability sample of white American married women in the child-bearing years.
