Underlying causes and the impacts of disaster events (floods) on fertility decision in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract The study attempts to uncover how people living in vulnerable areas address the relationship between the impacts of extreme weather events (floods) and fertility preference. The study selected a village, Sharat Pur from Sunamganj District, which is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of flooding. The study gathered information from 158 respondents by using a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews. With the small sample size the study used descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. Findings show that there is still a preference for more sons to recover the damage caused from the impacts of floods. However, people think having a large family is a burden. They emphasize controlling family size through family planning programs and do not take into account the risk of children dying affecting their desire to have additional children. Therefore they consider having more children especially sons as a gift from God and the occurrence of flood events as the wish of God. The intention of the study is not to generalize findings but to comprehend the underlying mechanism between disaster events and fertility behavior. The study collected information from a very small sample size. Future studies might consider a large sample size and explore more deeply the mechanism between the different disaster events and fertility decisions by using a comparative analysis between regions vulnerable to different extreme weather events and not vulnerable to extreme weather events within Bangladesh, and comparing Bangladesh with other South Asian countries.