Intra-household allocation, child survival and gender bias in India

It is by now well established that households in much of South Asia prefer sons to daughters. This is part of a larger “culture against females” involving pervasive discrimination against females and manifesting itself, for example, in excess female child mortality and a highly skewed gender ratio. What is more, in the case of India, the gender ratio, which has been below one throughout this century, has fallen steadily from 972 females per 1,000 males in 1901 to 940 females per 1,000 in 2011. Also striking are the regional variations within the Indian figures. While the north and northwest of the country (particularly Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh) exhibit alarmingly lower gender ratios, the figures are much higher in the south (Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka). The state of Kerala in particular has been unique in producing a consistently favorable gender ratio for females throughout this century. Yet even these figures for the overall population conceal a striking contrast between the northwest and the south, which becomes apparent when age-specific gender ratios are examined. In general, it seems that the relative female disadvantage in chances of survival is significantly higher in the northern regions of India compared to the southern states of the country.  Accepting this dichotomy as a useful generalization the important question remains: what are the reasons for this duality? As a result, in this paper, I develop a one-period household model with two types of children (males and females), which assumes direct consumption benefits as well as pecuniary contributions or transfers associated with surviving children and employ data on “Poverty, Gender Inequality and Reproductive Choice” to examine regional disparities in male-female child survival rates in India. Preliminary results indicate that the greater neglect of female children in north India compared to the southern part of the country is related to the regions high dowry payments reinforced by low rates of female labor force participation and hence lower female autonomy. Results also provide evidence of a strong correlation between maternal education and child survival in both regions on India.