Status of Women Indicators, Infant Mortality Rate and Birth Rate: A study of High Crude Birth Rate Districts of Pakistan

Pakistan, with a population of 139 million in 2000, is the seventh most populous country in the world. The historical trends indicate a continuous and exponentially increasing growth in population because of sustained high fertility and declining mortality. Currently the population is growing at around 2.2 percent per annum, one of the highest rates of growth (after Nigeria) in the world. In Pakistan, the contraceptive prevalence is still low (24 percent) and fertility level (TFR 5.0) is among the highest in the world. There has been only a marginal decline in fertility in Pakistan in the last two and a half decades. An average married woman in Pakistan still experiences a total of at least seven children if she survives and completes her reproductive periods. Pakistan was amongst the pioneering countries to launch a family planning program in the public sector forty years ago (1960s) but unlike many other less developed countries having success stones in family planning, it has not yet achieved widespread acceleration of adoption of family planning measures. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of women work participation, female age at marriage, female literacy rate, sex ratio and infant mortality rate on high crude birth rate districts of Pakistan by using data from 1998 population census. A multiple regression model is used for analyzing the data. The results of the analysis reveal that all the variables which are included in the model are equally important. Female age at marriage and female literacy are significant and negatively related to birth rate, while sex ratio and infant mortality rate are statistically significant and positively related to birth rate. Women's work participation is also positive but statistically insignificant.