Assessment of Gender Bias and Maternal Favoritism regarding Nutrition, Health Care Utilization and Education in Slums of Mumbai, India

Introduction: Preference of son over daughter is a growing culture in the patriarchal society of India. Favoritism can be defined as real or perceived preferential behavior and treatment to one or more of a mother’s child at the expense of that mother’s other children. Preference for son is often manifested as discrimination against the daughters. It can lead to many discriminatory practices against the girl child, like in relation to feeding, health care, education, distribution of intra family food distribution. This study was conducted in a slum of Mumbai, India to understand and assess the presence of gender bias and maternal favoritism. Materials and Method: It is a quantitative cross sectional Descriptive study. By simple random sampling 4 sectors out of 11 sectors of the Slum were selected followed by systematic random sampling for the selection of the respondents, thereby making a sample size of 153. Method of data collection was interview schedule using structured questions. Five domains have been considered are housing characteristics, nutrition, health care, education and work and play. Data analysis was done using SPSS 20. Percentage frequency was calculated and cross tabulations were made. Results: Gender bias favoring the son was found in relation to nutrition, education, health seeking behavior etc. Conclusion: Mother’s educational level was found to be significantly associated with the duration of breast feeding both in case of son and daughter. Thus a system of home visits should ensure that the knowledge about breast feeding spreads.