Fertility Behavior of Hill Dalit Women in Phedap Rural Municipality–1, Terhathum, Nepal

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined fertility behavior and selected fertility differentials among Hill Dalit women in Phedap Rural Municipality–1, Simle, Terhathum, Nepal. Primary data were collected in 2024 through structured interviews with 126 ever-married women aged 15–49 years selected from the local population. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, while mean children ever born (CEB) was compared across selected explanatory variables. Early marriage was common: 17.46% of respondents married before age 15 and 53.17% between ages 15 and 20. Nearly two-fifths of respondents had informal education, 61.90% worked in agriculture, and 88.89% reported having ever used a contraceptive method. The overall mean CEB was 2.07. Mean CEB was higher among women who married before age 15 (3.09) than among those who married at age 25 or older (1.00), and it declined from 2.22 among women with no formal education to 1.17 among those with secondary education. Ever-users of contraception had a lower mean CEB than never-users (1.96 versus 3.00). Women reporting child loss also had higher mean CEB than women reporting no child loss. The findings suggest that delayed marriage, expanded educational opportunities, improved access to voluntary family planning, and strengthened maternal and child health services may contribute to lower fertility and improved reproductive autonomy in the study community.