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Akansha Singh and Laishram Ladusingh

curred in a lesser number of states. Even though the life expectancy at birth of females was higher
than that of males in Assam, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, the life disparity of females was higher than
that of males. This indicates that a strong negative correlation between the life expectancy and life
disparity does not assure that higher life expectancy population would also have a lower life dispari-
ty. A higher female life disparity in these states was mainly because of the higher female child mor-
tality (RGI, 2012), and negated the large gain of females in the adult age group.
Analyzing differentials in life disparity and life expectancy at birth simultaneously by sex in this
study has provided a new perspective on mortality differentials. This study has shown that with the
rapid increase in the average length of life of females, life disparity is also converging faster for fe-
males than for males in India, leading to enlarged sex differentials for the life expectancy and dispar-
ity, with the highest differences in low mortality states. To diminish the lifespan variability among
males in India, among its states, and ultimately, to close the sex gap in lifespan variability, policies
should focus on averting premature and young adult deaths among males in India. This aversion
would simultaneously increase life expectancy and decrease life disparity, whereas strategies aiming
at extending the length of life among the oldest-old would increase life expectancy of a popula-
tion, but at the expense of increasing lifespan variability (Kannisto, 2001). As adult deaths have se-
vere economic and social consequences, more and effective health policy interventions in India
are clearly needed to prevent such deaths.

Conflict of Interest and Funding
No conflict of interest was reported by all authors.

Acknowledgements

We express thanks to the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their very detailed helpful
and constructive comments that greatly improve the quality of the paper.
Ethics Statement

The analysis described in this paper was performed using secondary data obtained from publicly
available sources as outlined in the Data and Methods section.

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