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Dharmendra Singh, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)
Srei Chanda, IPE Global
Priyanka Dixit, TISS
Somnath Jana, PhD Research Scholar
Laxmi Kant Dwivedi, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Caste being a fundamental construct of society also explains the persistent socio-economic inequality in India. Our study gives estimates and measures the inequality in fertility and child mortality pattern across castes in last two decades in India. We have adopted four rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) from 1992 to 2016 for analysis. The subcastes are segregated after thorough literature review. The fertility is measured through Total Fertility Rates (TFR) using Possion Regression and child mortality estimates such as Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR), Infant Mortality Rates (IMR) and Under 5 Mortality Rates (U5MR) are measured. In NFHS-1 (1992-1993), TFR among the forward castes hovers around 3.5. Some of the backward castes like fisherman or Scheduled Tribe (ST) shows a high fertility at this time but decline in the subsequent rounds. Musahar is the caste which shows an exception due to increase in TFR from NFHS1 (3.4) to NFHS 4 (4.8). Brahmin is the top notch among all castes showing IMR 73.2 in NFHS 1 and 39.9 in NFHS 4. The backward castes like Yadav, Kumhar, Scheduled Caste, ST, and Lodhi are showing a higher rate for IMR and U5MR. Inequality among castes explains the differential fertility and mortality outcome.
Keywords: Culture, ethnicity, race, religion and language, Fertility and childbirth, Mortality, Population size and growth/decline