Does Neighbourhood affect the Reproductive Health Status of Women?

Location has also manifestation on the morbidity pattern, knowledge and attitude for treatment seeking apart from socio-cultural, economic and demographic factors. The present paper aims to explore impact of neighbourhood effect on women’s reproductive morbidity and their treatment seeking behaviour using DLHS-3 data. Five regions were delineated on the basis of geographical proximity as districts bordering with Nepal (4), West Bengal (4), Jharkhand (6), Uttar Pradesh (6) and interior districts (17). There was high reporting of morbidity and low treatment seeking for the morbidities in the districts bordering with Nepal and West while the condition was vise-versa for districts near to the state capital and UP border. It is found that in addition to migration of husband and accessibility to the services, the ‘neighbourhood effect’ also plays significant role in regulating the health of women living in districts bordering with UP and Jharkhand.