title: Gender Inequality: Is the National Population Policy's Objective of Two Child Norm Heading the Correct Way?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Male Preference is well known phenomena world wide from ancient ages. A descriptive study was carried out to assess the attitude of women towards birth of son, use of contraception methods and sex determination methods in rural village Kasurdi in Pune district.
  
  
  METHODS
  Univariate analysis was carried out by considering each factor determining sex preference separately as well as using a Logistic Regression Model. Adequacy of fit of the model has also been tested.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Out of 110 respondents interviewed, 62.7% felt that male child is necessary in the family. Univariate analysis revealed that sex of first child, concern undergone for second pregnancy with regards to sex of the child, number of children in family and type of family were significant factors contributing to the son preference. The analysis under the logistic regression model revealed that sex of the first child and concern undergone in second pregnancy with respect to the sex of the second child are the most dominating and significant factors in the causation of son preference. The difference between family sizes when compared with the sex of first child was statistically significant signifying that if the first child is a male then it hardly matters whether the second child is male or female, but if the sex of first child is female then the families land up with bigger family size. On an average most of the respondents favour two children with an equal share of male and female children.
authors.affiliation: Lecturer (Statistics and Demography), Armed Forces Medical College, Pune-40.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Patrikar
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune-40.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhalwar
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune-40.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: Sc 'E', Department of Community Medicine (PSM), Armed Forces Medical College, Pune-40.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Basannar
keywords: Female foeticide; Logistic regression; Son preference