Sex-Differentials in Childhood Mortality in Punjab and Haryana – Are They Reality?†

Excess female mortality during childhood is a distinct and unrelieved phenomenon in India, particularly in the two northern Indian states— Punjab and Haryana. This paper investigates the basic facts of sex differentials in child mortality in a very comprehensive manner using the three rounds of NFHS data sets from 1992 to 2006. More specifically, this paper examines the following three basic questions: (1) Have the sex differentials in child mortality in Punjab and Haryana narrowed down during the past two decades? (2) Does discrimination in food as well as preventive and curative care explain the existing sex differentials in child mortality? And (3)What are factors that explain the sex differentials in child mortality? The determinants of childhood mortality have been studied through Poisson regression. The survival curves resulted from Cox regression reveal two important findings: survival chances for females during neonatal period is higher, while an opposite phenomenon appears in the post-neonatal and childhood ages.