ABSTRACT
In the Indian context disconnect between overall economic growth and health indicators has become a matter of important concern. In this context, the shortfalls in basic needs related to children need special attention as they are dependent on adults for their care and support. This chapter provides a quantitative assessment of the gap in two different aspects of child health outcomes using the National Family Health Survey, 2005-06. The empirical approach is based on measuring the overall coverage of a particular opportunity after discounting for the inequality in its coverage. Child Health Opportunity Index is based on Human Opportunity Index by the World Bank and the indices are compared across six geographical regions of India. The two child health opportunities chosen for analysis here are neonatal survival and attainment of age-appropriate height among children aged five years or below.
The result shows that inequality exists for stunting and neonatal mortality rates across the broad geographic zones of India. For the neonatal mortality, not much variation is observed across states or across circumstances. The Central zone comprised of states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh exhibits the largest inequality compared to other zones and the South zone shows the best opportunities and least inequality.
