PIP:
Fertility trends and prospects for east and southeast Asian countries including cities in China, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Viet Nam are described. Additional discussion focuses on family planning methods, marriage patterns, fertility prospects, theories of fertility change, and policy implications for the labor supply, labor migrants, increased female participation in the labor force (LFP), human resource development, and social policy measures. Figures provide graphic descriptions of total fertility rates (TFRS) for 12 countries/areas for selected years between 1960-90, TFR for selected Chinese cities between 1955-90, the % of currently married women 15-44 years using contraception by main method for selected years and for 10 countries, actual and projected TFR and annual growth rates between 1990-2020 for Korea and Indonesia. It is noted that the 1st southeast Asian country to experience a revolution in reproductive behavior was Japan with below replacement level fertility by 1960. This was accomplished by massive postponement in age at marriage and rapid reduction in marital fertility. Fertility was controlled primarily through abortion. Thereafter every southeast Asian country experienced fertility declines. Hong Kong, Penang, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei and declining fertility before the major thrust of family planning (FP). Chinese fertility declines were reflected in the 1970s to the early 1980s and paralleled the longer, later, fewer campaign and policy which set ambitious targets which were strictly enforced at all levels of administration. Korea and Taiwan's declines were a result of individual decision making to restrict fertility which was encouraged by private and government programs to provide FP information and subsidized services. The context was social and economic change. Indonesia's almost replacement level fertility was achieved dramatically through the 1970s and 1980s by institutional change in ideas about families and schooling and material welfare, changes in the structure of governance, and changes in state ideology. Thailand's decline began in the 1960s and is attributed to social change, change in cultural setting, demand, and FP efforts. Modest declines characterize Malaysia and the Philippines, which have been surpassed by Myanmar and Viet Nam. The policy implications are that there are shortages in labor supply which can be remedied with labor migration, pronatalist policy, more capital intensive industries, and preparation for a changing economy.
PIP:
In the Philippines the number of children per woman is envisioned to be 2 by the year 2000 to reach simple replacement level. The crude birth rate had dropped from 43.6% in 1960 to 32.3% during 1980-85 corresponding to 4.2 children/woman. However, the corresponding rates for Thailand and Malaysia were 28% and 32.1%, respectively. The total fertility rate (TFR) was still a high 4.7% in 1988. In 1980 TFR was 3 in Manila, but 3/4 of the provinces still had TFR of 5-6.8 in 1985. Yet the World Fertility Survey of 1970 indicated that the total married fertility rate had decreased from 9.6 in 1970 to 9.1 in 1977. Married women had an average of 4.5 children in 1968 and still 4 children in 1983. Only 1/2 of married women aged 15-45 used contraception. In 1983, only 26.2% of all fertile married women used effective contraception. 63% of Moslim women, 70% of Catholics and Protestants, and 83% of members of the Church of Christ advocate modern contraceptives. From 1967 the National Population Outreach Program of the state sent out family planning advisers to unserviced areas. In 1983 only 37% of married women knew about such a service within their locality, and in 1988 a World Bank investigation showed that 67% could not afford contraceptives. The education, employment, income, urbanization of the household as well as medical care of women and children strongly influenced reproduction. The lifting of living standards and improvement of the condition of women is a central tenet of Philippine family planning policy. A multiple regression analysis of the World Fertility Survey proved that professional women tended to have smaller family size, however, most women worked out of economic necessity not because of avocation. The higher the urban family income, the lower marital fertility; but the reverse is true in rural areas where traditionally large families have had more income, and children have provided future material security. In 1983 1/3 of women with children over 18 received regular financial remittances from them. Thus, appropriate family planning program evaluation has to be concerned with the relationships of fertility and rural areas, the economic development of the community, and the physical access to a family planning clinic.
A study of knowledge, attitude and practice was carried out among sixty nine married Orang Asli women in the district of Kuaia Langat. The study showed that oniy a smail proportion of the women were using family planning methods. About half of the study women were stiil uncertain with regards to their attitude towards family planning. The findings aiso showed that there was no diversity of the methods with oral contraceptive being the major choice. Majority of the husbands had indeed positive feeling towards family planning. The women also considered breastfeeding as a major method of contraception.
PIP: A knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) study of 69 married Orang Asli women from Kuala Langat district, Malaysia is reported. The Orang Asli comprise 2744 people in 412 households served by rural health services and a few private practitioners. The median age of the sample was 16.3 years, of whom 18.8% were married before age 15. 47.8% knew of family planning methods. 53.6% of the women said that they and their husbands approved of family planning, 2.9% disapproved, and the rest were undecided. Only 30.4% had discussed family planning with their husbands. 21.7% stated that they would use contraception, either the pill or sterilization, after their family was completed.
PIP: Contraceptive prevalence was determined in the Kelantan region of Malaysia, an area with relatively poor health indices. 350 women attending health clinics on rubber and palm-oil estates and living in surrounding suburbs were surveyed by clinic workers or during home visits. The sample included 273 Malays, 64 Indians and 13 Chinese. This area of Peninsular Malaysia is noted for the highest infant mortality rate (17.7), second highest crude birth rate (35.2) and highest dependency ratio (88%) in the country. 44.9% practiced contraception, highest in Chinese and lowest in Indians. Methods used were pills by (55%), traditional methods (19%), tubal ligation (18%), safe period (14%), injections (5.5%), IUD (4.7%), and condom (2.3%). The Malaysian traditional methods are herbal preparations from tree bark or roots, herb pills, and exercises after coitus. 34% of the non contraceptors had used contraception before but stopped because of side effects, religious or spousal objections, or desire to conceive. 74% had married in their teens. 46% of the non-contraceptors were spacing their children by prolonged breastfeeding.
"Based on surveys conducted among different ethnic groups in rural and urban settings in Peninsular Malaysia in 1981-82, this paper analyses changes in patterns of marriage and household formation among Malays, Chinese, and Indians. Aspects covered include social mixing before marriage, choice of spouse, comparison of spouses' characteristics, and place of residence after marriage. There are important cultural differences between the main Malaysian ethnic groups in matters related to marriage, but in many important respects, attitudes and practice are tending to converge...."
Many studies have shown that schooling levels of husband and wife are important determinants of household behavior in developing countries. This article asks how the schooling levels of husband and wife come to be associated with each other through the marriage market. The Kiefer-Neumann model of labor market search is adapted to marital search, the aim being to explain both the positive sorting on educational levels for spouses, and the positive relationship between female schooling and age at 1st marriage. World Fertility Survey data for Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia are employed in the analyses.
This Islamic Family Law Enactment of Pahang, Malaysia, is based on the model of the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territory) Act, 1984 (Annual Review of Population Law, Vol. 11, 1984, Section 250). It differs from that Law in the following major respects: 1) marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims are prohibited; 2) a wali Hakim (special guardian appointed by the Sultan) is authorized to consent to marriage if the wali (guardian) of the bride unreasonably withholds consent; 3) the grounds for divorce are fewer (failure to maintain and cruelty being omitted), although there is a general provision allowing divorce for any ground that is recognized as valid by Islamic law; 4) a son is to be maintained until the age of 15, not 18; and 5) a religious court, rather than a civil court, may order a putative father to maintain his illegitimate child.
The Court held that, in determining whether to authorize a Muslim man to take a second wife under Rule 11 of the Malaysia Muslim Marriage and Divorce Rules 1968, an objective test, rather than a subjective test, should be used. It ruled that, whether "a husband is competent to support more than one wife and will be able, if he marries more than one wife, to treat them with equity in accordance with the Muslim law" should be established by objective evidence, not merely by a husband's statement that he can support both wives and will treat them equitably. The Court allowed the appeal of the wife of the respondent against a decision of the Registrar of Muslim Marriages to allow the respondent to take a second wife.
Hereditary haemolytic anaemias, in particular, thalassaemia and the haemoglobinopathies, have been found to be a significant cause of hereditary haemolytic disease in West Malaysia. Theoretically 1 in 2500 marriages are between heterozygotes for beta-thalassaemia and 1 in 10,000 children can be expected to have thalassaemia major. An approach to the prevention of this disease would be public education and identification of carriers: to develop some approach to the identification and genetic counselling of beta-thalassaemia trait.
"This paper estimates a proportional hazards model for the timing of age at marriage of women in Malaysia. We hypothesize that age at marriage responds significantly to differences in male and female occupations, race, and age. We find considerable empirical support for the relevance of economic variables in determining age at marriage as well as evidence of strong differences in marriage patterns across races."
Fertility differentials between rural and urban populations are investigated using World Fertility Survey data for Bangladesh, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. "The fertility measure used in this analysis is the number of children ever born to a woman. An attempt is made first to establish the differential in fertility levels between urban and rural areas after necessary control of the demographic factors..., and then the possible explanation of the differential is sought in terms of socio-economic variables such as education of the respondent, and occupation, work pattern, work status and place of work of the respondent as well as that of the husband." Data concerning the fertility differentials and the associated explanatory variables are presented in tables and charts. "The results tend to show that the countries of Asia are undergoing similar patterns of fertility transition as was experienced in the advanced countries. Perhaps one can graduate the countries in the transition scale as follows: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Malaysia are in the initial stage; Fiji, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand are in the middle stage of transition."