Women's Health in a Rural Poor Population in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

India is one of the few countries where life expectancy of women has been less than that of men till very recently. For rural women this still holds good [1]. More girls than boys die in infancy and childhood. This higher female infant and child mortality is a rare phenomenon not found even in countries with far higher mortality rates than, India, and is believed to be the consequence of the discriminatory treatment of the female child. It is seen that 'Deaths of young girls in India exceed those of young boys by at least one-third of a million every year. Every -sixth infant death is specifically due to gender discrimination.' (1). What is more, the gap shows no signs of narrowing: the ratio of female to male mortality in childhood has remained at around 1.1 since 1970 (Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System, various years).