WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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P. AROKIASAMY
The odds of utilization of full vaccination are estimated for male
and female children and by birth order of children with separate regression
model for each of the five regions. Figure 5 and 6 compares
the odds of using health care (full vaccinations) between the sexes by
birth order. The shortfall in the odds ratio of vaccination use for girls
compared to boys of respective birth order constitutes the extent of
female discrimination in health care. Both NFHS-1 and NFHS-2 data
show that in North and North Cental regions, the odds of being fully
vaccinated for all birth orders of female children are lower compared
with boys of the same birth order. The odds of a child being fully
vaccinated tend also to decline for girls of higher birth order compared
to boys of same birth order. By contrast, the odds ratios indicate only
minor differences between the sexes in the southern region.
Figure 5 Sex differentials in health care (all vaccination) for children aged 12-
47 months by birth order (birord) and region, NFHS-1, 1992-93
Odds ratio of children receiving health care (ref: birod1)
1,2
1,0
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0,0
birord1
birord 2-3
birord 4-5
birord 6+
birord1
birord 2-3
birord 4-5
birord 6+
birord1
birord 2-3
birord 4-5
birord 6+
birord1
birord 2-3
birord 4-5
birord 6+
Male Female
birord1
birord 2-3
birord 4-5
birord 6+
North Northcentral East West South
Note: Odds ratios of children receiving care by sex-and specific rank order (see details in
source).
Source: Arokiasamy (2004).
The discrimination of female children in health care negates the
biological advantage that female children have. Providing modern
health care services always involves expenses, and when sons are perceived
to be more important than daughters, parents are more willing
to incur health care costs for sons than daughters. Therefore, the
extent of female discrimination in health care across the regions is
tions of data that either leads to insignificant evidence or unreliable measurement
about female neglect in curative treatment (Timaeus et al., 1998).