Page 43 - IJPS-2-2

Mukesh Ranjan, Laxmi Kant Dwivedi, Rahul Mishra, et al.

Factors acting differently for tribal and non-tribal populations were state of residence, wealth, re-
ligion, place of residence, mother’s education, and birth order. Even after adjusting for characteris-
tics of the infant and the mother and program related factors, regional variation in risk of infant death
for both groups exists. For tribes, we found higher risk of infant death in Chhattisgarh in comparison
to Jharkhand; for non-tribes, residing in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh raised the risk of expe-
riencing infant death by almost 44% in comparison to Jharkhand. These spatial or geographic diffe-
rentials in infant mortality may be due to the differences in their socio-economic development
and/or cultural factors. These findings are in accordance with previous studies (Dhar, 2013; Marwar
and Jain, 1997; NSSO, NSO, and MOSPI, 2011; Pandey, 1988; Pandey and Tiwari, 2001; Sahu, Nair,
Singh et al., 2015; Sharma, 2010; van Dillen, 2006).
Tribes following Christianity in the Central and Eastern region had a higher relative risk of infant
death in comparison to Hindus. The possible reason could be that most of the tribes in this region
have adopted Christianity and because of their own religious customs they may not be able to utilize
modern healthcare facilities, which resulted in high risk of disease, infections, or even death among
newborn children (Pandey, Choe, Luther et al., 1998). The different infant feeding practices between
the two religious groups may also contribute to higher risk of infant mortality among Christian tribes.
In Christian tribes, children are usually fed cow’s milk and, because of their religious and traditional
rituals they usually wait several days after birth to initiate breastfeeding (Baqui, Williams, Darmstadt
et al., 2007; Huffman, Zehner, Victora, 2001); children in Hindu tribes are normally fed with breast
milk right after birth.
For non-tribes, no difference was found between two major religious groups: Hindus and Muslims.
The similarity between these two religions may be responsible for this non-significant difference.
Furthermore, the homogeneity in socio-cultural environment, availability of health infrastructure,
similarity in attitudes, behaviors, and access to public health services in the areas where members of
these two religions are located may also explain the similarity of infant mortality between these two
religious groups (Guillot and Allendorf, 2010; Bhalotra, Valente, and van Soest, 2010; Mistry, 2005).
The risk of infant death among the rich families in non-tribes was significantly lower. Families
with good economic condition normally have great resources to afford timely and high quality med-
ical treatments when family members are in need (Cutler, Deaton, and Lleras-Muney, 2006; Bhalotra,
2007; Das Gupta, 1990), and have good living environments both at home and in the neighborhood
that prevents their members, especially children, from experiencing health deterioration due to poor
living environments (Das Gupta, 1990; Sastry, 1997). Mothers from economically well-off house-
holds are more likely to have the ability to provide better health care for their children in terms of
adequate nutrients, proper clothing, clean tap water, clean sanitary conditions, and other amenities
which affect health (Aber, Bennett, Conley et al., 1997; Barrett and Browne, 1996; Defo, 1997).
However, for tribes, no difference exists in the risk of infant death among the three wealth classes.
We speculate that it might be due to high poverty among tribal populations (Dhar, 2013; NSSO,
NSO, and MOSPI, 2011), and the fact that very few families in the tribal populations were classified
as rich families and most of them have similar socio-economic status.
In non-tribes, infants born in rural areas had a higher risk of death than those born in urban areas.
Rural areas normally have limited maternal and antenatal/postnatal care facilities, and thus in-
fants born in rural areas cannot get timely and adequate care services, which increase mortality risk.
Our finding on this rural-urban difference in infant mortality is in line with previous studies (Pandey,
1998). However, for tribes, the rural-urban difference in risk of infant death was not significant. This
may be due to the fact that more than 95% of tribal populations reside in rural areas and they have
homogeneously low access to and utilization of maternal and antenatal/postnatal care services (Singh
and Ram, 2006).
After controlling for other factors (household, child, and program factors), mother’s education
was found to have a significant influence on infant survival among tribes. Education of mother is
known to have a strong and positive impact on children’s health and her ability to access as well as

International Journal of Population Studies | 2016, Volume 2, Issue 2 37