 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss Second Demographic Transition. The Second Demographic Transition Theory proposed by Ron Listage and Dark Van Kuy in 1986. They argue that the societies undergo another shift reaching the stage 4 of the first demographic transition. So, as we have discussed that the first demographic transition consists of 4 stages. The second demographic transition basically is marked by a further decrease in the fertility below the placement level and increase in the single person household and changes in the marital patterns including the high rates of cohabitation, divorce and nonmarital child bearing. So, as you can observe in the different modern societies particularly in the western societies the more and more people are being engaged in their personalized lives in their individual lives. So, they do not want to have the burden of children. So, unfortunately, this has been converted into a very low birth rate. So, as the societies promote ideologies like this, as well as liberalization ideologies or progression ideologies, the people themselves are more and more social responsibilities and their personal responsibilities, they want to engage in their personal lives. And we are observing that many western societies have been disturbed by a natural population pyramid. And now, the older population has become much more of the youth population. So, most of the time, the youth population supports the economy and the older population is on the pension stage and they need resources that come from the labor of the younger population. So, what is happening now is that all the societies in which there is a sharp difference between the older and the younger population are forced to adopt immigration policies and give different incentives to such countries where the younger population is more so that the populations from there migrate and go into these developed countries. But along with that, a big fear is present in those countries that their native population should not be extinct or extinct. So, the second stage, the demographic stage basically reflects that fear that your growth rate or birth rate is so low that it cannot be replaced after that. So, this transition is tied more to the changes in personal values and behaviors with individuals prioritizing the self-actualization and personal choice. It also emphasizes the shift from survival and economic base to see and making to self-fulfillment and personal autonomy, especially concerning the family planning and lifestyle choices. So, critics argue that the second demographic transition assumes a Western critical perspective overlooking the cultural and economic diversity across different societies. So, a criticism here, second demographic transition quper, we hear that they are very Western centric. They are just focusing the Western societies which are affected by the modern ideologies, the liberalization ideologies and generally, non-Western societies, especially the religious societies, they entirely ignore the second demographic transition or all-encompassing issues. While not fully applicable to Pakistan as the country is still at the second stage of the first demographic transition, some urban areas and higher socioeconomic classes might be starting to exhibit early signs of this second demographic transition, such as delay in marriages and preference for smaller families. So, in Pakistan, as we can see, generally, we are on the second stage of the first demographic transition. But in some patches, we can see this change in the CPEAN, as you can see that due to education, urban areas are being delayed in marriages and this delay is reflecting that we are preferring smaller families more and more. One is that we are delaying marriages, the other is that we are preferring smaller families and the third, which is being predicted in the future, that this trend will be, as the divorce rate is also increasing, so people might want to have at least one child now. So, it might be possible that after a certain number of years, we may also be on the second demographic transition.