Why Low Birth Weight Children are more Concentrated in North than South India?

Background: Each year 15-30 million infants – up to 20 percent of all infants, are born with a low birth weight (LBW). This paper try to investigate the factors negatively correlated to LBW to minimize the prevalence of LBW in India based on the data (NFHS, 1992-2006). Methodology and findings: The analytic sample consisted of 0 to 36 months children with birthweight data obtained from health cards and maternal recall. The analysis done on sample in the distribution across household wealth, religion, and urban residence was compared using multilevel models. The chance of being low birth weight is almost ten percent more in poorest wealth quintile household than richest. This is consistently true from 1992 to 2006. Education is not playing direct role on LBW during 1992-2006. The place of residence is not distinctly playing role in the difference of prevalence of LBW children. India is classified here into six regions and the prevalence of LBW in north region is more than south region. The findings show that the north region is almost 50 percent more likely to have low birth weight children than south in India at 95 percent confidence interval. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the LBW is more prevalent in north, no educated women with higher birth order, and lowest wealth status household than their counterpart in India.