Hindu-Muslim Differential in Childhood Death and Immunization in India

We find that Muslims are subject to a number of advantages, in addition to the better known disadvantages, which appear to contribute to their lower child death. However, part of the Muslim death advantage remains unexplained. Muslim children in India face substantially lower mortality risks than Hindu children. This is surprising because one would have expected just the opposite: Muslims have, on average, lower socio-economic status, higher fertility, shorter birth-spacing, and are a minority group in India that may be expected to live in areas that have relatively poor public provision. Higher mortality amongst Hindus has gone largely unnoticed. This Subject Report examines infant and child death and their determinants for India as a whole and for individual states, using data from the National Family Health Survey. Neonatal (first month), post neonatal (age 1-11 months), infant (first year), and child (age 1-4 years) mortality are estimated, as well as the effects of socioeconomic background characteristics, demographic characteristics, using information from women's birth histories pertaining to children born during the last 10-year period before the survey.