Estimation of Net Currently Married Life within the Reproductive Period for Females in Pakistan

Abstract

In a society like that of Pakistan, where fertility is almost wholly con¬fined to the Marriage life, the pregnancy exposure period is regulated by age- at-marriage and the age at which the possibility of pregnancy subsequent to marriage is terminated by divorce, widowhood, mortality and menopause depending on whichever of these events occurs earlier. In addition to these factors, the possibility of pregnancy can also be reduced by the use of contracep¬tives. However, in a population like that of Pakistan where family planning is not widely practised, the period of exposure to pregnancy is primarily deter¬mined by the length of time between the occurrence of marriage and its termina¬tion by widowhood, divorce, mortality or menopause. For demographic purposes, an enquiry into the existing patterns of net currently married life within the reproductive period of females getting married at different ages or of females with different durations of marriage can throw light on their fertility in the same period of time. In order to have an under¬standing of the extent to which the net married life is actually limited by the given patterns of occurrence and termination of marriage, the effects of nuptiality and marriage termination have to be taken into account simultaneously, for they are the determinants of the net duration of the currently married life of a female. The present study has the limited objective of arriving at some estimates of the net currently married life of females in Pakistan by allowing for the effects of widowhood, divorce and mortality till the end of the reproduc¬tive period. In other words, an attempt is made to estimate the average ex¬pected net years of actively married life till the end of the reproductive period.