WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

52
P. AROKIASAMY
275,172 births and 32,836 deaths within four years after birth and the
respective numbers in NFHS-2 are 268,879 births and 28,854 deaths.
State-wise trends in sex ratio at birth (number of males per 100
females) are thus generated for four periods using birth histories from
the two rounds of NFHS surveys. The SRBs for 1983-86 and 1987-90
have been generated from NFHS-1 (1992-93) and the SRBs for 1991-
94 and 1995-98 have been generated from NFHS-2 (1998-99). Also,
data from census and Sample Registration System (SRS) are referred to
in the discussion concerning long-term trends in child sex ratio and sex
differentials in child mortality. Data of NFHS-2 regarding the last two
births in the three years prior to survey are used to find the extent of
use of sonogram/ultrasound or amniocentesis on pregnancies and sex
ratio at birth for these pregnancies and the correspondence between
the two. This data is also used to study the emerging differentials both
in sex ratio at birth and the percentage of pregnancies for which sonogram/ultrasound
or amniocentesis are used following women’s education
and standard of living index. 3
In assessing sex differentials in child mortality, this analysis focuses
on excess female child mortality in ages 1-4 years. Multivariate
logistic regression models are estimated to study sex differentials in
child mortality. The odds of children dying between 12-47 months are
estimated on full birth history data of NFHS-1. 4 A unique child index
namely ‘sex-specific rank order of children’ is used to study the dynamics
of sex differences in child mortality. The indexing of children by
sex-wise rank provides greater precision in assessing sex differentials in
child mortality than the conventionally used methods such as sequencing
sex composition and sex-wise birth order of children (Arokiasamy,
2004).
Female discrimination in the use of child health care is examined
in terms of various recommended child vaccinations, of sex-wise birth
order for born and surviving children during the last 12 to47 months
(1988-91) in NFHS-1 and 12 to35 months (1995-96) in NFHS-2.
Children up to the age of 11 months are censored because all recom-
3 The standard of living index (SLI) is an aggregated score of values assigned to
household assets such as house type, source of lighting and drinking water, separate
kitchen, ownership of house, agricultural land, livestock and durable goods ownership
-car, scooter/motor cycle, telephone, refrigerator, colour television, bicycle, fan,
radio/transistor, sewing machine, water pump, bullock cart/thresher, mattress,
pressure cooker, chair, cot/bed, table and clock/watch. The index represents the
economic condition of the household with scores ranging from 0-14 for low SLI, 15-
24 for medium SLI and 25-67 for high SLI.
4 The cases that have not been exposed to mortality risk among children aged 12-47
months have been censored in child mortality models.