DETERMINANTS OF ADULT MORTALITY IN INDIA

This study attempts to evaluate the factors affecting adult mortality with special emphasis on the lifestyle factors using the 1998–1999 National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The sample size, N, in this analysis is 330,267. It includes those aged 15–59 of which 2.6 per cent died during adulthood. In the Poisson regression model, the independent variables used are age, sex, place of residence, lifestyle factors of other members of the family, standard of living, literacy composition, caste, religion, mass media exposure, household type, fuel for cooking and region of residence. This analysis has been adjusted for the clustering of deaths at the family level. The findings suggest that there is a strong positive relationship between lifestyle factors and premature mortality, even after controlling for other background characteristics of the deceased person. Further, age, standard of living index (SLI), literacy composition, religion, household type and region of residence are some important determinants of adult mortality in India.     

DAUGHTER DISCRIMINATION AND FUTURE SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN INDIA

This paper examines recent trends in sex ratio at birth in all the major states of India, based on three rounds of the National Family Health Survey. It finds evidence of an increase in the ratio, particularly at the second-order birth among women having a first daughter in many states in the northwestern region of the country. Also, there are signs of daughter aversion emerging in Odisha, an eastern state. Based on parity progression ratios and the trend in sex selection, an attempt is made to estimate the peak of sex ratio at birth in India. With moderate intensification in sex selection in the northwestern region, sex ratio at birth is expected to reach a peak of 117–119 males per 100 females around the period 2021–2026. If, in addition, sex selection spreads further in the southeastern region, the sex ratio at birth in India could even increase to a level of 124.     

HEALTH OF HOME-BASED SEX WORKERS AND THEIR CHILDREN IN RURAL ANDHRA PRADESH,INDIA

This study uses secondary data from 2006 to assess the physical and mental health of rural, home-based sex workers and their young children in rural Andhra Pradesh state of India. The analyses of survey and clinical data show a high level of morbidity amongst sex worker women and their children. Women show high levels of nutritional deficiencies, anaemia, weight loss and hospitalisation. Women's mental health is particularly serious, with 92 per cent being depressed and 57 per cent having attempted suicide. The majority have experienced domestic and work-related violence, including rape. Clinical assessments of sex workers’ children show that most have received vaccinations, but almost half have parasites, dental problems and nutritional deficiencies. Both the physical and mental health of sex worker mothers are associated with the health of their children. Therefore, health interventions focusing on sex worker mothers have the potential to improve the health of their children.     

HISTORY,ANTHROPOLOGY, COLONIALISM,AND THE STUDY OF INDIA

Autobiography of an Archive is a collection of essays by Nicholas B. Dirks written since 1991, preceded by an autobiographical introduction. This review article discusses the collection in relation to Dirks's overall scholarship and the wider intellectual field in which history, anthropology, and colonialism intersect in the study of India. Dirks has written three books: The Hollow Crown (1987), an “ethnohistory” of a “little kingdom” in south India; Castes of Mind (2001), about colonialism, anthropology, and caste in India; and The Scandal of Empire (2006), which discusses the foundations of British imperial sovereignty. In The Hollow Crown and other writings, Dirks significantly contributed to the debate about the “rapprochement” between anthropology and history, which was prominent in the 1980s. But in the 1990s, Dirks thought, the rapprochement ground to a halt; the relationship between anthropology and colonialism then came to the fore, and Castes of Mind, as well as some of these essays, were influential critical studies of colonial anthropology. In recent essays, Dirks has examined the “politics of knowledge” and the postwar development of South Asian area studies in the United States. This article argues that although the relationship between anthropology and history is now rarely debated, historical anthropology has continued to develop since the 1980s. Moreover, anthropologists in general now recognize that history matters, and that colonialism crucially shaped modern society and culture in India, and other former colonial territories. Many of Dirks's conclusions about, for example, Indian kingdoms and caste in colonial discourse, have been criticized by other scholars. Nonetheless, anthropological writing, especially on India, is no longer unhistorical, as it once often was, and Dirks's scholarship has played a valuable part in bringing about this change.     

The association between maternal employment and child survival in India, 1998–99 and 2005–06

While many studies contend that a mother's economic activity may generate positive outcomes for both mother and children, empirical results from less developed countries actually indicate higher mortality rates among children of working mothers. This article examines the association between maternal employment and child survival using India's National Family Health Survey. Using propensity score matching, the study compares working with matched nonworking mothers in child's risk of death. To address the heterogeneous nature of working mothers, the employment-survival relationship is analysed across various occupational categories. A supplementary analysis examines gaps between children of working and nonworking mothers in nutritional status and low birth weight (LBW). Our results show that high risk of mortality and low nutritional status are more pronounced among children of mothers working in low-status occupations. The results indicate insignificant differences in LBW, a finding that favours the explanation that the mortality disadvantage of children of working mothers emerges primarily after birth most likely because of inadequate childcare. The article discusses these findings in relation to various potential mechanisms mediating the negative association between maternal employment and child survival.     

HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE: A Present Political Concern

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, an increasing number of inquiries into the history of children’s out-of-home care have shown that child welfare sometimes failed to protect children. In this Special Issue, we explore how the Nordic countries have responded to allegations and scandals of historical child abuse within child welfare, and also how history matters in these political processes. We ask how Nordic societies have acknowledged past historical child abuse and how they aim to deal with its legacy. Attempts to redress, and provide compensation for, past failures are discussed in the context of transitional justice.     

Revisiting the Great Compression: Wage inequality in the United States, 1940–1960

Seminal work by Goldin and Margo (1992 Goldin, C. D. and R. A. Margo.1992. The great compression: The wage structure in the United States at mid-century. Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (1):1–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/2118322.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) used the first available microdata samples of the United States decennial census to document the narrowing of the wage structure between 1940 and 1960, a pattern they refer to as the “Great Compression.” We revisit their findings using newly available, substantially enlarged samples of the decennial censuses covering this period. Our findings largely replicate the patterns initially reported by Goldin and Margo. However, differences emerge when estimating rates of return to education and experience for specific groups and in a decomposition exercise. A second goal is to indicate directions for future research that might benefit from the use of the complete count census data.     

SOCIOECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF TEMPORARY LABOUR MIGRATION IN INDIA

Temporary labour migration has rarely been studied at macro level despite its high prevalence in India. Drawing from the recently available Indian National Sample Survey (2007–08), this paper aims to study the basic differentials between temporary and permanent labour migration at the national level and examines the socioeconomic determinants of temporary labour migration at the state level. The study shows that temporary migration is seven times larger than permanent migration, and is largely a rural phenomenon dominated by rural to urban migration. A regional pattern in temporary labour migration is evident in the low-income Central and North Indian states. Low economic, educational and social status significantly induces temporary labour migration in contrast to permanent labour migration. As such, temporary labour migration appears to be a survival strategy of the rural poor in India.     

1. INDIA IN A WORLD: DILEMMAS OF SOVEREIGNTY

Azfar Moin's The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam prompts a consideration not only of the histories of Islam and early modern connected histories of Central and South Asia, but also of current debates about local and global history‐writing. Moin's work intersects with a strand of comparative world history—following Victor Lieberman's Strange Parallels—but also engages strands of historical anthropology, bringing to light a range of compelling stakes for global historians, historians of South Asia, and scholars of nationalism alike. Though Moin's work pushes the boundaries of connected histories centered on South Asia, his focus on a trans‐regional millennial science avoids questions of the local within new global histories.     

LIFECYCLE DEFICIT,INTERGENERATIONAL PUBLIC AND FAMILIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN INDIA

The old and young consume public and private goods and services in excess of their labour income and incur lifecycle deficit (LCD). The share of the benefits received by the elderly 65 years and above and children below 20 years are, respectively, 6.3 and 42.1 per cent of the total familial in-transfer. The elderly themselves contribute to support, particularly for education of grandchildren, and their contribution is more than the benefit they receive from intra-household transfers. Contrary to the belief that in India, children provide old-age security, the elderly do not gain from the intra-household familial support. It is found that in India, there is a shortage of public funding to meet a greater share of the LCD of the population of children and the aged, and they would not have been able to consume essential goods and services if not for asset-based consumption and familial support.     

EFFECT OF LIVING ARRANGEMENT ON THE HEALTH STATUS OF ELDERLY IN INDIA

Epidemiological studies show strong association between lack/inadequate family support with increased mortality and poor health among the elderly. This study examined the effect of living arrangement on elderly health status by analysing the data of 39,694 persons aged 60 and above included in India's second National Family Health Survey conducted in 1998–1999. Results indicate that elderly who are living alone are likely to suffer more from both chronic illnesses, such as asthma and tuberculosis, and acute illnesses, such as malaria and jaundice, than those elderly who are living with their family, even after controlling for the effects of a number of socio-economic, demographic, environmental and behavioural confounders. The findings have important programme and policy implications for countries such as India, which has the second largest elderly population in the world. There is a strong need for the implementation of specific public support systems and health care strategies focused on the elderly population in general and elderly living alone in particular.     

Adult Male Mortality in India

This paper presents levels and trends of adult male mortality in India and its major states during the post-independence period applying the widowhood method on census data. It also estimates adult male mortality for all the districts from major states of India. We adjusted widowhood estimates for possible bias due to remarriages and examined the sensitivity of adjusted estimates to different scenarios of remarriage rates. Comparison of widowhood estimates with direct estimates from official sources supports the credibility of widowhood estimates. Information obtained from widows aged 40–44 and 45–49 provided the most convincing patterns of adult mortality. Trends in adult mortality suggest that maximum gain in ₄₅q₁₅ for India and its states occurred during 1949–1960. Adult male mortality varied substantially across the states of India. Although adult life expectancy has been rising in India, the rate of mortality reduction has been decreasing over the last few decades.     

EPICENTRES OF MISSING DAUGHTERS

The spatial spread of the female child deficit in India has been explored in terms of hot spots (with high deficits) and cold spots (with more female-favourable child sex ratios). It has been argued, using the Census of India data from individual censuses, that there is a contagion effect for both hot spots and cold spots. This paper takes this discussion forward by asking whether such an effect can be seen across censuses. To do so, it develops the concept of an epicentre to see whether a hot or cold spot in one census spreads shock waves across a wider region in later censuses. The longitudinal analysis of child sex ratios over three censuses—1991, 2001 and 2011—shows that the hot spots are epicentres for the spread of female child deficits, while the cold spots display a reverse effect.     

THE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF KOPIA,AN EARLY GLASS MANUFACTURING CENTRE IN INDIA

Right from the time of the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture, dating to c. 1200–600 bce , more than 210 archaeological sites in India have provided evidence of glass, but there has been no attempt to date the glass‐yielding layers by radiometric techniques. This has hampered the establishment of a chronology for the beginning and evolution of glass‐making in India. The site of Kopia was excavated by the first author for three seasons from 2004 to 2006 to understand the history, development and technology of glass production in India. The excavation produced evidence of a long period of occupation, covering the Fine Grey Ware (FGW), Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP), Sunga–Kushana and Gupta periods. Twenty accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and radiocarbon dates, all derived from charcoal samples and processed independently by three laboratories, are available from the site. The dates range in their calibrated form on average from the ninth to the second century bce in locality I and from the second century bce to the second century ad in locality II.     

Decomposing the Rural-Urban Differentials in Childhood Malnutrition in India, 1992–2006

Using data from multi-waves of the National Family Health Survey conducted in India between 1992 and 2006, this study examines the pattern of rural–urban differentials in childhood malnutrition in India over time. Furthermore, it identifies the factors responsible for the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition and quantifies their contribution. The result shows a considerable and widening gap in childhood malnutrition across rural–urban residence in the country over the study period. The rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition has narrowed in a few states whereas it widened in most states over time. The economic status of the household and parental education was the most significant contributors to the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition in India. Based on the findings, this study suggests that to reduce the rural–urban gap in childhood malnutrition, focus should be given to the rural poor.     

Effect of Maternal Mortality on Survival of Under-Five Children

With regards to children who are born shortly before their mother's death (index), the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly lower (0.39 vs. 0.81) than those born just before the last child (penultimate) of the same mother. Such a difference is mainly due to high mortality in the first six months of age. Over the period between 1974 and 2005, survival improved among the penultimate but not the index children. For index children, the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly higher (0.79 vs. 0.51) if adopted by other households by the age of 15 days compared to those who stayed in their own households. Again for index children, the cumulative proportion of survival up to 60 months of age was significantly higher (0.82 vs. 0.70) for those who stayed in their own households where a grandmother was present compared to the presence of other female household members.