WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

SEX RATIO AT BIRTH AND EXCESS FEMALE CHILD MORTALITY IN INDIA…
central in explaining the regional pattern of excess female child mortality.
Inferentially, this discrimination in health care against female children
contributes to the well-established pattern of excess female child
mortality in the North and North Cental states of India.
Figure 6 Sex differentials in health care (all vaccination) for children aged 12-
35 months by birth order and region, NFHS-2, 1998-99
odds ratios of children receiving health care (ref: birod1)
1,2
1,0
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0,0
birord1
birord
birord
birord
birord1
birord
birord
birord
birord1
birord
birord
birord
birord1
birord
birord
birord
Male Female
birord1
birord
birord
birord
North Northcentral East West South
Note: Odds ratios of children receiving care by sex-and specific rank order.
6. Effects of development on prenatal and postnatal discrimination
of female children
The above results provide evidence of net rises in sex ratio at birth
and excess female child mortality as principal contributors to the overall
female deficit in India. One of the main aims of this chapter is to
discuss the relation between development and both prenatal and postnatal
discrimination of female children. Accordingly, evidences of
differentials in sex ratio at birth and excess female child mortality are
examined by women’s education and standard of living index (household
economic condition).
The evidences of steeper rise in sex ratio at birth and the consequently
greater deficit of females in urban areas, among educated and
economically better off households are discussed in the previous section
dealing with trends and differentials in sex at birth. Table 6 further
provides evidence of logistic regression estimates of sex differentials in
child mortality for each of the five regions by women’s education,
index of living amenities, index of mass media exposure and duration
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