{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.011317195850361521, 'fraction_numerical': 0.022320025149324112, 'mean_word_length': 5.072519083969466, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Demographic transition theory and developing countries: a case study of India.

Demographic change in India is examined within the framework of the theory of demographic transition. The theory represents a descriptive interpretation of demographic change over time in a particular region. It states that a populations fertility and its mortality will decline from high to low levels as a result of fundamental economic and social development and that decline in mortality usually precedes fertility decline. The recent marked fertility decline in the developed countries during the last 20 years or so can be described as a part of longterm dynamic change as characterized by the demographic transition theory provided that the post World War 2 baby boom is regarded as a short-term deviation to recover the postponed births during the war years and the preceding economic depression of the 1930s. As the European socialist and nonsocialist developed countries represent 2 different subsets in terms of fertility and mortality levels they are reviewed separately. The developing countries are characterized by a wide variety of demographic changes due to extreme diversity in economic social cultural and political settings. In the developing countries as a whole during 1975-80 the weighted average crude birthrate was estimated to be 38.5/1000 excluding the Peoples Republic of China. In contrast it was 15.6/1000 in the industrialized nations. The disparity in mortality levels between the developed and the developing world is not as wide as in the case of fertility levels. It is a well established fact that the demographic transition is under way in almost all the developing countries. Mortality levels have significantly declined. Examining demographic change in India in the context of the theory of demographic transition suggests that only at a very broad level of generality is the theory applicable. Empirical validation would be possible only when transition particularly the fertility transition was fully completed. Mortality transition appears to fit the pattern reasonably well if the projected decline in the next 2 decades continues and the crude death rate falls below 10/1000 by 2000. A gradual decline was observed between 1921-41 accelerated rapid decline between 1941-71 and again very slow change during the 1970s. There appears to be no validation of the hypothesis that fertility declines with a lag in response to the mortality decline. The mortality rate declined by more than 50% before there was any noticeable change in the national crude birthrate in the mid 1960s. The observed fertility decline of about 25% during the last 15 years can be attributed to the reduction in the proportion of women married and to the decline in age specific fertility rates. There is growing statistical evidence that the contribution of social development as opposed to industrial and agricultural development "explains" a greater share of the state variation in fertility decline over the 1961-71 period. The new evidence for Europe has suggested that fertility decline occurred over a wide variety of socioeconomic conditions and cultural and language settings.