Estimation of Infant and Child Mortality for Social Subgroups

Over the decades Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes have remained the most deprived group in the highly caste ridden Indian Society. The development of these disadvantaged groups and their assimilation with the larger society has therefore been a matter of great concern for the government and other public bodies, both at the centre and in the states. On the same side with diversity in culture India's performance on infant mortality reduction pales in comparison to that of many other countries in South, Southeast and East Asia. In India where the coverage and completeness of civil registration system is poor and information from this system can not be used to assess fertility and mortality. In such circumstances the only way is to use information from census and then apply some indirect techniques to get the estimates of vital rates at district level. In this book attempt has been made to estimate the level of Infant and Child Mortality for most disadvantage groups i.e. Schedule Castes and Schedule tribes in India through indirect technique at district level using Census and RCH data which might be very useful for policy implications.