Development

Raichur District Human Development Report 2014
respondents reported to have been
beaten by their husbands.
Hence, early marriage snatches the
girl of her childhood, her right to
get educated and she is often
verbally and physically abused.
More serious is she being forced to
bear children. Since she is not
matured enough to bear the child
not only she risks her health but
also of the child. In fact this is one
of the predominant reasons for a
higher incidence of children born
with low weight, infant and child
mortality as well as maternal
mortality.
Among the respondent women, the
average age at which the first child
was born has been 18.4 years,
which is considered as a risky age
for child birth. It is the highest at
18.8 years among SC-ST sample
and lowest at 18 years among
minority respondents. All the 36
women had children and majority
of them reported they delivered their
first child when they were below the
age of 19 years. The age wise child
bearing shows an interesting
pattern (see Figure 8.6).
The reproductive cycle obviously
starts at too an early age. The data
Figure 8.6: Age at First Delivery (Years)
Source: Field Survey
shows that 83 per cent of
respondents delivered their first
baby before the age of 19 years. The
proportion of women having
children later on declines. Majority
of the women had their first child
when they were 18 years old; about
3 per cent at 16 years of age and
nearly a quarter each at the age of
17 and 19 years. After that, the
child bearing proportion comes
down. This is to be viewed seriously
from the point of view of health of
the mother as well as the child.
Another aspect of women’s health
is how many children she bears on
an average. Greater the number of
children, higher is the risk to her
health. The sample consisted of
women below the age of 30 years
and the data shows that the sample
women had 2.72 children on an
average. This was relatively higher
among minority women (3), SC-ST
households (2.89) compared to
OBC women (2.61). As far as
medical consultation was
concerned three-fourths of the
sample women did consult doctors
for their previous delivery and all
of them accessed the PHC and
government health facility. Across
social groups, while all minority
community women consulted
doctors, only 56 per cent did so
among SC-ST women and 78 per
cent among OBCs. Similarly, 72 per
cent of women accessed advice,
nutritional supplements and
medicines from anganwadi
workers. However, least proportion
of SC-ST women (56 per cent) did
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