Hindu-Muslim Differential in Childhood Deaths and Immunization in India: Evidence from NFHS-3 (2005-06)

This paper focuses on percentage of childhood death among Hindu-Muslim (religion) in India and its selected regions. Sex differentials in infant and child death reflect strong son preference in many regions. Most regions exhibit excess male death during the neonatal period but excess female death during childhood. In the country as a whole, female child death is 40 percent higher than male child death. The sex differentials in infant and child death suggest that son preference and discrimination against female children are very strong in northern states but minimal or nonexistent in southern states. Among socioeconomic background characteristics, urban/rural residence, mother’s exposure to mass media, and Mother’s literacy, access to a flush or pit toilet are found to have substantial unadjusted effects on infant and child death, but these effects are much smaller when the effects of other socioeconomic variables and basic demographic factors are controlled. Wealth index, birth interval, women age at first birth, household head’s religion and economic level of the household have substantial and often statistically significant adjusted effects on infant and child mortality. Both unadjusted and adjusted effects of most of these background characteristics are largest for child mortality and smallest for neonatal death.