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Life expectancy at birth and life disparity: an assessment of sex differentials in mortality in India

pectancy and life disparity, and their variation over time. The sex differentials in life expectancy
at birth and life disparity were measured at the state and urban–rural level. Such dispersion measures
have not been in much use in developing countries like India. In this study, we made such an attempt
using the most reliable data source of mortality – from the SRS.
Our results showed that the sex gap in life expectancy at birth and life disparity widened over time,
in India. The study suggested a shift in the role of age-specific mortality to the sex differentials in
life expectancy and disparity, with adult ages contributing more significantly unlike in the past,
younger ages contributing more to the differentials. The female advantage in life expectancy in
2006–2010 was mainly attributable to the low level of female adult and older age mortality than
males in India, and the low life disparity is because of the contribution at the adult ages. This finding
indicates that the female advantage in life expectancy and life disparity is occurring in India as what
have been found in the developed countries (Shkolnikov, Andreev, Zhang, et al., 2011; Edwards and
Tuljapurkar, 2005). However, in comparison to the international levels, there is a scope for further
reduction, especially in the rural areas and high mortality states. Large decline in adult mortality
among females is because of a significant decline in maternal mortality. Under the Reproductive and
Child Health Programme started in 1997 and the National Rural Health Mission started in 2005, the
government has started several new initiatives to address the problem of maternal deaths and to
speed up the rate of decline of maternal mortality across all states (RGI, 2006, 2013).
In India, it has been observed that sex of the person is one of the important and significant deter-
minants of adult mortality in India (Saikia and Ram, 2010). The mortality risk in middle-aged female
people in India is lower than males (Subramanian, Nandy, Irving et al., 2006). Adult mortality in the
age group 15–59 has declined to a large extent among females from 358 per 1000 in 1970 to 145 per
1000 in 2010 (Rajaratnam, Marcus, Levin-Rector et al., 2010). The decline among males has
not been at the same rate as it has been for females. Studies in developed countries mostly attribute
such differences to the behavioral risk factors (Edwards and Tuljapurkar, 2005). The grandness of
health risk and behavioral factors is increasing in India due to the changing pattern in the cause of
death (Krishnan, Nawi, Kapoor, et al., 2012). In India, the level of risk factors among the males is
more marked than among the females (Wu, Guo, Chatterji et al., 2015). Behavioral risk factors, such
as smoking, little physical activity, poor diet, and other unhealthy practices, have a significant role to
play in adult mortality in India (Jha, Gajalakshmi, Gupta et al., 2006).
This study also showed that sex differential in life expectancy and life disparity existed in the ru-
ral and urban areas, with larger gap in the urban areas. The major reason of this large gap in the ur-
ban areas is the significant contribution of both older age group 60+ years and adult age group 30–59
years. The older age mortality decline for females was more pronounced than males in the urban
areas (Yamunadevi and Sulaja, 2016). The difference in health behavior of older males and fe-
males can be associated with the significant decline in female older age mortality (RGI and CGHR,
2015). Furthermore, higher infant and child mortality among females in the rural areas (RGI, 2014)
negated the advantage females gain from the mortality decline in the adult age group, and resulted in
a higher life disparity. Discriminatory treatment of females over males with respect to food alloca-
tion and healthcare is associated with the excess female mortality (Arokiasamy, 2004).
This study found significant regional differentials in sex gap for both life expectancy and life dis-
parity. Many studies have found that Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, and Kerala have much better
mortality measures than the national level (Chaurasia, 2010; Saikia, Jasilionis, Ram et al., 2011), but
the sex gap in life expectancy and life disparity is increasing over time because of the increasing con-
tribution of adult age group. This suggests that the sex differences in mortality rates for the adult age
group is widening over time. In Kerala, females were in an advantageous position from the 1970s
onward. The slow reduction in the mortality rates among adults and elderly males in Kerala was re-
lated with the ongoing epidemiological transition and misalliances in health policies (Thomas and
James, 2014).
Compared to the life expectancy at birth, the transition in sex differentials in life disparity has oc-

48 International Journal of Population Studies | 2016, Volume 2, Issue 1