Decrease of Fertility without Increase in Contraceptive Use: Interrelationship between Migration and Fertility Behavior in Himali Gaunpalika in Nepal

Migration from Nepal to other countries over the last 200 years includes pil-grims, devotees, political refugees, and soldiers. Throughout the twentieth and 20 years of the twenty-first century, Nepal has increased its role as a major la-bour-exporting country and mostly economy depends on remittance. This research paper explores the new trends of fertility and tendencies of contraceptive are in relation to migration especially male, ecology and population dynamics. Use of contraceptive is not usually determined by the use of contraceptive in case of human in general but in some cases, fertility is a complex whole which can be determined by multiple factors like ecology, religion, culture, social dynamics, demographic dynamics etc. The objective of this paper was to identify the situation of migration trends in relation to fertility in the study area. Fertility mainly depends on male migration towards abroad and even in India, geography, climate (cold climate), heavy work load due to difficult geography, food habit (mainly carbohydrate sufficiency rather than protein based) etc. are playing a key role for decreasing fertility rather than using contraceptives in case of Himali Gaupalika of Bajura district of Nepal.


Migration
Emigration refers to leaving one's native country intending to settle temporarily or permanently in other countries. The process of shifting from country or society to another is a migration. It is estimated that three million Nepali (productive age group; ranged from 20 years to 40 years) are abroad as migrant workers for earning money. The nation, with 26.4 million populations (more than 10 percent of productive age group people) has migrated to search opportunity to work abroad (except India), halting its own country's development (DoFE, 2014). It is assumed that, around 3 million people working in India, since Nepali do not need visa and work-permit for Indian job market, it is hard to find out the exact number of those people for this trend dates back to centuries. According to the official data of Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE, 2014) a significant number of the Nepali migrant workers are engaged in 3D works (Difficult, Dirty, Dangerous) in various countries, from Qatar to Malaysia and from South Korea to Israel. However, a negligible portion of this work force has also been engaged in managerial or some kind of "decent" jobs in the host countries.
The number of Nepali workers leaving home for foreign employment is increasing day by day. An official figure shows that a total of 527,814 Nepali men and women left the country in the fiscal year 2013-2014(DoFE, 2014. In addition, the data maintained by DoFE does not include records of individuals who leave the country for foreign employment illegally via India or with support of middlemen. It supports to make obvious claim that the number of emigrants is more than official data published by Government of Nepal. Globalization ultimately impacts Nepal by globalization of manpower as new mobility paradigms, since the first Gurkha recruitments at the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, as Skeldon (2008) emphasizes the scale of international migration must not conceal the importance of internal movements and research conducted by Hollema et al. (2008), give a complete overview of migration, from forced to labor or study migration, at both internal and international level. In another hand, Sinha (2009) associates the study of Nepalis of Indian origin with that of Indians of Nepali origin, and considers the many points they have in common to be worth studying together. Now Nepal is good remittance earning nation as main sources of economy (CBS, 2004). Massey et al. (1993) studied the culture of migration as a promising field of research and found out the "push and pull" factors or other theories to explain migration. Adhikari and Seddon (2002) focus on some Lahure songs and writings from Pokhara, which are part of a culture of migration defined as "those ideas, practices and cultural artifacts that reinforce the celebration of migration  (Ali, 2007).
Studied about Migration was paid attention for a decade within the migration as the determining factor of development (Taylor, 2006) but later, discourse shifted towards main economic base for national budget through remittances as an example or role model for the world (Khanal & Watanabe, 2006). Studies should be favored in order to understand how migration affects social transformations among migrant and non-migrant households, but also how development itself leads to further migrations (Bohra & Massey, 2009;Webber et al., 2012). Adopting the hypothesis that migration is one of the factors that changes Nepalese society, the role of economic and social remittances (Levitt, 1998).
Although Nepal has improved across many reproductive health indicators, challenges remain. Since 2006, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) has stagnated (48% vs 53% in 2016), while traditional method use has more than doubled in the same time period (NDHS, 2011). Use of modern family planning is nearly three times higher among married women who live with their husbands (68%) than those who do not (24%) (NDHS, 2011). The rate of family planning discontinuation has become a major concern for the government of Nepal. NDHS (2016) identified the association between husbands moving away from their homes (for any purpose) as the primary reason for discontinuation of family planning, followed by side effects, and desire to become pregnant. The Nepal Family Health Program survey also showed that women with migrant husbands tend to discontinue family planning methods when separated from their spouses to avoid rumors about infidelity from in-laws and community members (NFHP II, 2012).
Globally, studies have identified health disparities among women with migrant husbands (Chen et al., 2015) and negative consequences of migration on other family members' health (Gao et al., 2010), children's education (Morooka & Liang, 2009) and child wellbeing (Schmeer, 2009), Mental health issues have also been identified among wives of migrant husbands, including increased feelings of loneliness and isolation (Skledon, 2009) and depressive symptoms (Lu, 2012). In India, women with migrant husbands have higher levels of reproductive morbidity (Roy & Nangia, 2005) and sexually transmitted infections than women married to non-migrants (Sevoyan & Agadjanian, 2010). This is further complicated by limited access to sexual and reproductive health services for wives left behind (Seddon et al., 2001). Positive impacts of husbands' migration include increased accrual of money and material items and improvement in women's decision-making power, particularly for the management of resources and household affairs (Kaspar, 2006).
The sons are very highly prized and daughters are desired because sons continue the family name, continue their lineage, transfer of parental properties in lineage system, can perform funeral rituals are and expected to provide support in old age. This patrilineal social structure discourages women from practicing contraception until they have a son (Karki, 1992

Focus of the Research
This research is mainly focusing on the searching the answers of these ques- own modes and means is the condition of subsistence. For this equilibrium condition, the inputs of the system are human and animal labor and existing physical and biological resources where as the outputs are production of goods (animals, cottage industry, and agriculture products), labor outside the The specific objectives of this paper is to identify the proportion of women with migrating husbands and describe the understudied implications of male-partner migration on family planning and related reproductive health factors. It is examined that; Why has fertility in Nepal recently decreased without a corresponding increase in contraceptive use? This paper describes the male migration is an important factor, both for fertility decline and for non-use of contraceptives. Among samples of young women (20 -40 years) with migrant husbands from Himali Gaupalika and assesses selected contraceptive prevalence among the women whose husbands are present in the home.

Theoretical Overview
Ecology is also another alternative perspective to analyze the human behavior especially fertility behavior in a wider sense. Ecology acts as a major component of variations; either genetic variation (either by geographical isolation, or by adaptation of species or by origin of new species) or cultural variations. In this context there is interplay between nature and nurture i.e. biology vs sociology in terms of studying human behavior via fertility. Here, nature vs. nurture debate is one of the most common while studying the fertility behavior. "Nature" refers to biological/genetic predispositions' impact on human traits, and "nurture" describes the influence of learning and other influences from one's environment.
The debate over whether the strengths and weaknesses of people are the result of nature or nurture has, and somewhat continues to rage on between scholars and lay people alike. This debate has had significant social implications, particularly concerning what are thought to determine people's ability to learn/intelligence.
Fertility behavior should be studied by using system based approach or eco- with the convergence of these trends (Fricke, 1986). The trend, criticizes the family planning programs and it challenges the assumptions of classical demographic transition theory by showing that colonial contact and capitalization of indigenous population can actually accelerate population growth by increasing the demand for children (Fricke, 1986 (Fricke, 1986). His population analysis based on ecological tradition paid attention on many theoretical as well as practical grounds.
Modern cultural ecology is different from the classical cultural ecology not only in terminology but also in perspectives. Modern ecological analysis is a return and advance from previous neo-functionalist and neo-evolutionist schools represented by Rappaport, Steward and White, although it incorporates many of the same issue of human and environmental interaction. Parallel with Orlove, Fricke believes on that Timling adaptation cannot be taken to imply long-term equilibrium. Since that, would employ either no limit to the resources on which the population depends on the steady state model in which no system grows at the expense of another. Since, population is increasing with obvious consequences for traditional production; the focus must be on change. Fricke focuses on the perspectives of the actions themselves, while the changes that occur on the result of these entirely rational courses of action.
According to Fricke, the Timiling population's adaptation is mainly based on the Timiling environments. The dialectical, causal relation between mountain environment and Timiling adaptation is viewed by the Fricke through the various general things of social change (Fricke, 1986). Fricke further believes that, from the ecological perspective, the primitive analytic concerns in the process of common with mountain population throughout the world. In such kind of environmental situation, the range of solutions of the livelihood problem or adaptation problem is relatively harsh compared to that of more generous environments that's why, Fricke's (follower of Steward) analysis will be must successful so as to identify the primary subsistence pattern determining the other components of culture.

Methodology
Methodologically, this study followed the explorative, descriptive and analytical research design. Information about socio-economic features, geographic features, economic features cultural features were gathered by using explorative and it was described according to the informations explored in study area. Fertility decrease, trends of migrations, use of contraceptive trends and tendecies including more information were gathered by using different tools and techniques were analyzed by using analytical research design.

Study Design and Sampling
This research was conducted in Himali Gaupalika from August and September,

2019.
During the course of study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, open ended interview, structured interview and semi-structured interviews were carried out among total 210 respondents each 30 from 7 wards. The respondents were selected on the basis of the criteria that whose husbands were not in their home, either respondent's husband were migrated in abroad, in gulf countries, India as foreign employee and or in many cities of Nepal as domestic employee. This information on maintaining confidentiality was provided to the participants both orally as well as through the information sheet. I have preserved the identity of each respondents and their settlement by using pseudonyms.
The primary objective of the study was to provide assessment and find out the correlation between and among fertility decrease and other various factors predominantly migration rather than contraceptives availability. Women self-reported as married. Women with migrating husbands were defined as having a husband who travels outside of the country for work for more than six months at a time. Across the variety of migration definitions, we focused on the wives of international migrants, as remittances from abroad provide some families with significant income, and the impact of those monies on factors associated with reproductive health has received limited attention in the literature.

Findings
From field work in Himali Gaupalika it was examined that their life adaptation in terms of • The Subsistence Pattern • The Social Demography

• Cultural and Individual Interface
However, mountain adaptation of Himali Gaupalika is influenced by various factors; here it was better to analyze the migration culture through broad or comprehensive perspective. By this way, I would like to synthesize the perspectives of land tenure ships, plus, population ecological perspectives and the perspectives of social, cultural or socio-natural system. This study, seeks to incorporate all of these issues into a single look at Himali Gaupalikas' adaptations through the interaction of population, social organization, and the economic activities.

The Natural Resources Availability and Management
Nepal occupies about 800 km of the central sector of the Himalayan arc. From south to north, Nepal can be divided into eight east-west trending physiographic zones namely: Terai, Siwalik range, Dun valley, Mahabharat Range, the Midlands, Fore Himalaya, Higher Himalaya and Inner and Trans Himalaya valley (Hagen & Kizaki, 1994). Each of the above zones has different altitude, topography, climate, soil type, and geology and vegetation characteristics. Likewise, major fruits apple orange, walnut and olive are grown in this municipality.
Wheat is the main cereal grown in this municipality.  (Table 1).
It is found that, though there are various productions in Himali Gaupalika, it is insufficient for them, the major problem here found that most of the land were found uncultivable, the majority of populations were found migrated for opportunities in Kathmandu, Dhangadi, Gaddachauki and even in Banbasa.
Some of them have gone to India, and rest were in gulf countries and very few for abroad.

Flora and Fauna in Himali Gaupalika
Cattle, buffalo, goat and pig are the major animals reared in Himali Gaupalika.
The total number of cattle is 7341. Similarly, the total number of buffalo is 1162.
The proportion of cattle is high as compared to buffalo. The number of yak/nak/chaury is 56.

Sheep and Goat Farming
The total number of sheep is 3438 and the total number of goats is 8904. Mostly local sheep and goat is here. Farmers bring fodder leaves from nearby forest.
Fodder leaves and grass are hanged in the sheep goat shed. In practice three times feeding to goat are being done. Salt is mixed in water and given to the goat. Farmers sell their sheep goats during festival days. In festival days farmers receive higher price for their sheep goat.

Forest and Biodiversity
This municipality has community forests, leasehold forests and government forests. There is no private, collaborative, reserve and religious forests. The total number of community forest and leasehold forests are 29 and 18 respectively.
The area of community forest is 3079.5 ha and of leased hold forest 276.2 ha.
The location of community forest is spread in ward numbers 1 to 7 while leased hold forest in 6 and 7 only.

Climate and Temperature
Climate is one of the important factors for Soil formation. Temperature and precipitation of the survey area influenced the soil formation. Directly it affects by supplying water and heat to react with parent material whereas indirectly it determines flora and fauna activities which furnish a source of energy in the formation of organic matter. This energy acts on the rocks and as a result minerals in the form of acids and salts are released (Stöcklin, 1980).
Climatic conditions of Nepal vary from one place to another in accordance with the geographical features in which topography and altitude are the major determinants. Broadly, in north, summer is cool and winter is severe, while in south summer is tropical and winter is mild. Bajura district lies in the hilly region of Nepal and has climatic sub-tropical climate. Long-term (2006Long-term ( to 2016 temperature and rainfall data were collected from nearby station which is the representative station of climate in the project area.
Temperature data analysis showed that the area is under subtropical region.
The data showed that the Pre-monsoon season (April-May) that corresponds to the summer naturally has the highest mean maximum temperature (26.02˚C) in the month of August and mean minimum temperature is 2.41˚C in the months of January.

Demographic and Social Settings
Fertility, mortality and migrations are the common area of interest for any demographic anthropologist. Among those, fertility in the one which can deter- The social settings include the population distribution and density pattern, age composition, caste/ethnicity and religious composition and literacy status, which is discussed in the following sections.
The Gaunplaika is diverse society in terms of caste, and physical settings. Hill  Table 3 shows the ward wise distribution of population by sex. Table 3 shows that ward number 6 has the largest population size as compared to other wards, which occupies 29.85 percent of the total population of the Gaunpalika. Ward number 3 has the smallest size of the population, which is 8.66 percent. Sex ratio of the Gaunpalika is 110.06, which is higher than national sex ratio (94.2). Sex ratio of ward no. 2 is 122.36, which is the highest of all wards. Sex ratio of ward no. 3 is 93.64, which is the lowest of all wards. Obviously, sex ratio is the high of all wards except ward number 3. Its average household size is 6.01, which is higher than the national average (4.88). Household size ranges from 5.60 in ward no. 6 to 7.08 in ward no. 4.
The population growth rate of Himali Gaunpalika is 3.16% per year. According Bajura Jillako Bastugat Bibaran 2074 shows that, the population of Himali Gaunpalika was 9214 and Himali Gaunpalika Bastugat Bibaran, 2075 estimates that the total population of Himali Gaunpalika is 11,253. The population of Himali Gaunpalika is 11,253 (Himali, 2019) which has been projected to be 12,941 in B.S. 2080 with population growth rate of +3.16% per year. Considering the same growth rate of population per year i.e. +3.16% per year, the projected population for 2085 will be 14,628. Overall population density of the Gaunpalika is 39.14 persons/km 2 , which is lower than the average national density (190.63 persons/km 2 ). Table 4, ward no. 6 has the highest population density of 631 person per sq·km and ward no. 3 has the lowest population density of 2.00 person per sq·km. Ward no. 4 has the second largest population density of 68.98 person per sq·km. and ward no. 1 has the second lowest population density of 9.01 per sq·km.

According to CBS (2011) presented in
Proportion of people at different age groups determines whether population of a particular area is young or old, or getting older or younger. Age wise population distributions of the Gaunpalika are as follows Table 5.

Sources of Income
Household income of the Gaunpalika largely depends on remittance, services-pension, agriculture, business, and wage labor. Despite the dominance of agriculture, its contribution in household economy is less. Remittance is the main source of income of the Gaunpalika (Table 7).

Employment/Occupation
Employment status is key indicator of economic status and source of income.
Agriculture, foreign employment, business, wage labour and are main occupation and employment sector. Within the Gaunpalika, out of total about 6255 (55.58%) population is found economically active and rest of the 44.42% population is dependent economically on rest of the family member. The majority of people are involved in agriculture while a few people are involved in business.
Out of the total economic active age population, 74.38 percent are involved in agricultural sector. Table 8 shows the population distribution by occupation status in Himali Gaunpalika.

Health Status
Health status depends on nutrition, sanitation, health service etc. it is reported that diarrhea, common cold, scabies, dysentery, gastric, fevers, tonsil, pneumonia are the most common diseases. Cancer, heart diseases are the major diseases.
Large share of people go to health post after not cure by traditional treatment.
Some people directly go to hospital for treatment in the case of suffering from hard diseases. It is also found that most of pregnant women visit to health post, but common practice in home based delivery. Only, in critical condition, pregnant women go to hospital. People call ambulance and go to Bayalpata hospital or Dhangadhi hospital. Table 9 shows the details of health services in Gaunpalika.    Discussing anthropological differences between contraception and natural family planning raises questions not usually asked in comparing what can at first sight simply appear to be two approaches toward the same end (birth control).
These questions invite a re-contextualization of the entire discussion within much more inclusive concerns for the complete human person, male and female, and their sexual relationship to each other. In most areas of personal health, many individuals rightly call for medicinal or surgical approaches to health care that are more holistic and natural and less intrusive, and they also actively support ecological conservation of the world's macro-environment.
The almost universal promotion of contraception rather than of fertility awareness is a puzzling anomaly in view of the use of holistic and ecological principles in other health and environmental concerns. In case of couple living together, there are many family planning devices available. Among them; modern methods and traditional methods are mostly common. In traditional methods drop out is one of the important methods, while in case of couple who live separate in the course of work they do not need any contraceptive means to use to control the birth. Here I would like to raise the fact that emergency contraceptive pills and condoms are widely used in study area. The population of 5021, are of the age between 19 -59 which comprise 44.61% of total population mostly the probable age who use any methods of contraceptives. Average family size (people per family) is calculated by dividing the population living in family by total households. Average household size can also be a reflection of personal or cultural preferences or economic choices. Persons per family who share common kitchen or average family size, is obtained by dividing the number of persons in family by the number of households. It is found that the average household size of Himali Gaupalika is 6.01, which is higher than the national average (4.88). Household size ranges from 5.60 in ward no. 6 to 7.08 in ward no. 4 (Table 11).

Male Migration and Contraceptive Using Pattern
South Asia, young married women often face cultural expectations and social pressure to "prove" their childbearing abilities to their families and their husband's families immediately after the marriage (Mensch, Bruce, & Greene, 1998;Pachauri, 1996). As a result, few married adolescents use contraception. Conversely, sexually active young unmarried women have strong motivation to avoid pregnancy, and so they tend to use contraception (McCauley & Salter, 1995). It has also been documented that when many young adolescents know about contraceptives, few use them because it is more difficult for adolescents to obtain contraceptives than it is for older, married couples. Often times, adolescents do not know where to go or what to expect.
In study area, it is very difficult to identify and gather the date and information about family planning and contraceptive users among those women whose husbands were migrated abroad or in India for work because if they talk about it to the others society may charge them for their immoral characters. Despite these, some remarkable situations were observed as; there was no substantial change in the use of family planning among women whose husbands were living elsewhere for less than one year. But there was a substantial increase in use of any method and use of modern methods among women whose husbands were living elsewhere for one year or more. However, there was no change in use of modern methods but a substantial increase in use of traditional methods. There was no substantial change in the use of family planning among women whose husbands were living elsewhere for less than one year. Information on current use of contraception among women living together with their husbands or whose husbands are absent can help programs identify and better serve the family planning needs of different groups.
Among couples staying together, there was an increase in use of withdrawal, and an increase in use of the pill, use of IUDs increased slightly among couples staying together, and use of implants increased.

Cultural and Individual Interface
With the adaptation perspective, it is necessary to consider about the primary determining factor of household process such as production, consumption and reproduction. It was clearly found that Himali Gaupalika's subsistence economy is geared to extracting resources from a bounded local environment, within which migration stranded as major strategies to sustain their life except agriculture and cattle raising. Under cultural and individual interface, various cultural and social events, phenomena and processes were done; beginning from the birth and childhood (process of birth rituals, naming etc.), marriage (procedure of marriage ceremonies), then death (death ritual). Similarly, annual cultural calendars and their celebrations were also comprises here because they are important and responsible factors for the adaptation of Himali Gaupalika indirectly.. but importantly, the migration of males supports the Himali Gaupalika's adaptation in two ways; firstly, remittance help to cope the food scarcity, and satisfactions of their others domestic subsistence based needs (food, shelter, cloths, health, educations etc.); and secondly, it also helps to maintain the population balance, their household composition by creating the fertility gap without using contraceptives.

Anthropological Lens
It is found that the existing situation of Himali Gaupalika identifies the five main ecological constraints on fertility decreases. They are 1) natural resources availability, 2) flora and fauna, 3) subsistence economic and technology, 4) topography, 5) health and population, and 6) social settings. It is found that how these factors determine the fertility decrease without increase in contraceptives of Himali Gaupalika so as to perverse their subsistence or livelihood. Their economic strategies such as agriculture, herding, technology, trade, population etc. are determined by the environmental condition of the study area, which is the central analysis of this paper.
Similarly, the five components of the ecosystems-1) economic strategy, 2) population pattern, 3) technology, 4) social organization cum institution and 5) environmental conditions-are directly interrelated affecting each other primarily. The factors such as culture and religion, conflict, disease, food scarcity (in populist term-famine) etc. also influence these five components secondarily. In this article, researcher not only concentrate on identifying the natural or ecological constraints of decreasing fertility of human and nature i.e. soil, but suggests and recommends how to attain the maintain equilibrium by out sourcing from the earning from migration in India and gulf and in abroad. In broader sense, The But in Nepal, where nearly one-third of women of reproductive age are separated from their husbands, many do not use family planning methods on a regular basis because-except in the case of extramarital sex-they are not at immediate risk of pregnancy. Women whose husbands are away still have a need for contraceptives upon their husbands' return, but it is observed, that women's emphasis might be on using emergency contraception and barrier methods, reflecting that they might be sexually active for

Summary and Conclusion
It is found from the study carried out in Himali Gupalika that populations are the determinant variables for the adaptation of Himali Gaupalika, population is examined as a dependent variable and its expression is determined by the interaction of biological and social factors. Himali Gaupalika, is a naturally fertile in population and people of study area usually practice no birth control by using contraceptives and artificial methods. They have had and they will practice natural methods that are migration of male for a long time to work in any place, and the general feeling is that such practices are not going to be adapted even in future.
In another hand, fertility is not only determined by the demographic factors only, rather than it is highly determined by ecological one. Ecological factors like climate, topography, availability of natural resources, technology adopted, including socio-natural systems are the main determining factors. So, it is a complex one which should be studied by using multidisciplinary approach. In this study, fertility was determined by ecological factor rather than contraceptive use. Fertility is directly related to migration. Fertility in Nepal is determined by migration which is one of the key factors and migration determines whether fertility increases or decreases. Children get high value because they help in household task frees their mothers and family members in domestic tasks. Even they help sometimes in farms and it also helps to free mother and other family members form their overloaded works in both household and in farm. Although fertility has been decreasing in Nepal since 1981, it is still high compared to many other developing countries because Nepal still follows at least two children in a family while in some other countries single child is mandatory.
Besides these, cultural factors are also playing a determining role in what should be the population dynamics especially fertility. Migration and fertility are interrelated and reciprocal causal factors in the case of Himali Gaupalika. One determines another-when population increases while increasing fertility, there is no enough subsistence then they should migrate for their mere subsistence, and on the other hand, increasing trend of migration will decrease the fertility but secure the food and it makes their adaptation very easy. That's why they have practiced the migration for their adaptation strategy without using contraceptives.
Despite all factors like increasing age at marriage, increasing knowledge about contraceptives uses, increasing socio-economic levels of people, increasing access towards contraceptives, etc., migration is one of the main factors to determine fertility in Nepal. Generally, increasing migration trends must decrease the use of contraceptives but in the case of Nepal both are increasing nowadays. It is a great concern in Nepal in general and Himali Gaupalika in particular.
Here it is found that, male migration towards abroad and even India, geography, climate (cold climate), heavy workload due to difficult geography, food habit (mainly carbohydrate sufficiency rather than protein based) etc are playing a key role for decreasing fertility rather than using contraceptives.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.