Women's autonomy and sex differential in child mortality in India
Singh, A.; Hazra, A.; Ram, F.
Genus 63(3-4): 55-75,2
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0016-6987 DOI: 10.2307/29789353Document Number: 227496
This paper deals with women's autonomy and sex differential in child mortality in India using data of the Indian National Family Health Survey 1998-99 (NFHS II). The survey posed several questions to women regarding decision-making on various items such as freedom of movement and control over resources. These variables have been used to create a composite index of women's autonomy in absence of any single indicator for measuring women's autonomy. The constructed autonomy index is utilized in explaining the sex differential in childhood mortality using the Cox proportional hazard model. Results indicate that the chances of sex differential in childhood mortality decrease with the increase in the autonomy of mothers and thus regional specific policies aimed at reducing the sex differential in childhood mortality are the need of the moment.