WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

DISCRIMINATION FROM CONCEPTION TO CHILDHOOD…
the respondents have such exposure. About one-third of the respondents
listen to the radio at least once a week followed by only 17 percent
of the respondents who watch television at least once a week. The
standard of living of the respondents shows that 21 percent belongs to
low, 44 percent to medium; and 36 percent to higher standard of living.
Considering the living arrangement of the respondents, more than one
third are cohabiting with their in laws. Socioeconomic characteristics of
followed up women and households were similar to the large-scale
community survey carried out by IIPS.
3.1. Passive Elimination Process
We discuss in this section several aspects of the passive elimination
process of the girl child. We explore in particular the sex differentials
in child death by different demographic parameters and other
health seeking behaviour. The determinants of passive elimination–
such as male children ever born, female children ever born, ideal number
of children, women’s childhood experience, autonomy, married life
and other socioeconomic and demographic factors on the death of
female child–are also examined here.
3.1.1. Excess of female deaths over male deaths by birth order
Mortality differentials by sex in the IIPS survey as well as in our
follow-up survey are examined. Mortality pattern and differentials are
found to be somewhat similar in the two surveys and do not therefore
seem to be influenced by the sample used in the follow-up survey. For
this reason, we will only use results from the follow-up project on child
mortality (Table 2). Overall, 15.6 percent children had died, of which
16.1 percent were females and 14.7 percent males. However, a significant
gender differential can be seen in the death of the children according
to their birth order: the percentage of death of female children is
found to be increasing with higher birth order. The percentage of male
child death is also found to be significantly low in the higher birth
orders. The ratio of female deaths over male deaths turns out to be
lower than one for the birth orders 1 to 3. It increases to 1.8 for higher
birth orders (3+). This extreme variation in child death by sex between
lower and higher birth orders may be a result of neglect of female
children, which eventually leads to their deaths.
Women with four or more children ever born had experienced a
higher proportion of female child deaths although the difference with
male deaths is not significant. However, women with two to three
children ever born have experienced a relatively lower proportion of
female child deaths. But, the number of male children surviving is
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