Mother’s autonomy and child anemia: A case study from India

Despite a steady economic growth for last two decades and various public health policies aimed at improving children’s health, almost 60% of Indian children below age five were anemic in 2015–2016. I examine the association between the mother’s autonomy and childhood anemia by using data from the Demographic and Health Survey of 2005–2006 and 2015–2016. The mother’s autonomy index is constructed by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on three components of the mother’s decision-making power: large household purchases; visits to relatives and friends; and spending her husband’s money. This paper extends the discussion by examining the association with religion, caste, children’s gender and state’s child sex ratio. This paper finds higher hemoglobin levels among certain groups of children those whose mothers have autonomy: entire sample; those who practice the Hindu religion; those who are members of the Dalit caste; for male children in the entire sample; for both female and male children in states with child sex ratio lower than national average and only for male children in states with child sex ratio higher than national average. The association are statistically significant only in 2005–2006 for female children for the entire sample and only in 2015–2016 for Muslims.