Responsibility, Social Competition, and Contemporary Low Fertility in Rural West Bengal, India

West Bengal (WB), a middle-ranking Indian state with a rural population over 68 percent, is on the verge of becoming the lowest fertility zone (1.5 births /woman). While, even rural TFR of WB (1.6 births/woman) is on par with other highly developed countries (Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.), its developmental stage is not- which poses a paradox. Using survey data of 405 mothers aged 15 to 35 years old, with at least one child or who was pregnant at the time of the survey and employing qualitative and quantitative methods, the present study employs a society-specific institutional approach to explain the contemporary low fertility in rural WB by emphasizing persistent local socio-ecological changes pertaining to changing dynamics of the values and attitudes regarding childbearing, childrearing, and aspirations for children within the state. Results show that only 35.7% of the fertility disparities between 1992 and 2016 in rural WB can be explained by standard covariate. The likelihood of having an additional child increases significantly with increasing age and educational attainment among mothers yet, contrary to global patterns. The desire for an ideal parenting experience and aspirations for children have a significant negative effect on second and higher-order childbearing among couples. Moreover, women who based their parenting intentions on their own lived experiences were less likely to want another child than those who learned from society. Similarly, mothers who want to give their children a decent life are less likely to have another child. Thus, the study provides an example of how rapidly the third-world social norms are changing; questioning the historic narrative of “poor breed more”, though the sustainability question remains elusive. The study argues that in rural WB, the presence of high aspirations for children in an economically insecure setting initiates a distinctive socio-economic competition that ultimately generates a unique local low-fertility socio-ecology that has not been identified in the past within the context of rural fertility decline in India or any other developing countries.  Here, responsibility-laden aspirations towards children and reasoned-rational deliberations of fertility outcomes are acting as subliminal motives to have a small family. A similar trend can be found in South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore