Status of women and sex differentials in child mortality in India

Abhishek Singh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Faujdar Ram, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Demographers for long have been trying to study the determinants of infant and child mortality. It has been observed in South Asian countries, especially, India that female child is more likely to die during infancy and childhood as compared to male child. Does status of women has any impact on sex differential in childhood mortality. The present paper tries to investigate this question in the light of National Family Health Survey 1998-99 data for the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. Madhya Pradesh is one of the states experiencing high child mortality. Bivariate cross tabulation and multivariate logistic regression has been used in the paper to achieve the objectives. The findings reveal that among high status women, the sex of the child is not at all important in explaining the child mortality, whereas it is a significant factor of child mortality among the low status group of women.