Parental Education and Infant Mortality in India: Understanding the Regional Differences.

Abstract

The study examines the role of parental education, controlling for other factors, on the infant mortality rate in India using NFHS‐3 data collected in the year 2005‐06. In the present phrase of development in India, examining these concerns are having particular interest. Special effort is being given in the health policy domain to bridge the regional gap in the infant mortality by creating awareness through mass media and other informal education to the mothers, with a special focus on rural region and backward states. The main purpose of the study is to ascertain the nature of cross‐ sectional (regional level) relationship of infant mortality rate with educational levels of the parents. The importance of carrying out this study also lies with the widely argued fact that the empirical studies on infant and child mortality at the regional level or geographic location are more informative for designing health policies of a country.