IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v121y2021ics0190740920322908.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Orphans and their living arrangement in Indian households: Understanding their educational and nutritional status

Author

Listed:
  • Singh, Abhinesh
  • Sekher, T.V.

Abstract

Absence of biological parents affects a child's growth and well-being. This study examines the status of children living in the households, whose parents or either of the parents was not alive by considering their living arrangement, educational performance, and nutritional status. Orphans are mainly of three types classified by UNICEF as paternal orphans (absence of the father), maternal orphans (absence of mother), and double orphans (absence of both the parents). This study has done the comparative analysis between the orphans and non-orphans by considering their educational performances and nutritional status. The study used the data provided by the National Family Health Survey, India, 2015–16. This survey is a large scale sample survey conducted in households throughout the nation. Based on the data provided by the survey, in the age group 0 to 18 years there were 5 percent orphans (including all three types of orphans) living in the households. Living arrangement of orphans indicated that paternal and maternal orphans were found to be living with either of their alive parents, followed by grandparents, whereas double orphans were living with their extended family members or grandparents. Educational performances were compared for both the types of children and it was found that children who never attended school and the school dropout rates, both were higher among the orphans compared to non-orphans. In terms of nutritional status orphans were lagging behind the non-orphans, in all three indicators, i.e. stunting, wasting and underweight. Thus focused interventions are required for the betterment and welfare of orphans living within the households as the demise of either of the parent creates a void in the early years of life which ultimately affects the child’s overall development.

Suggested Citation

  • Singh, Abhinesh & Sekher, T.V., 2021. "Orphans and their living arrangement in Indian households: Understanding their educational and nutritional status," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:121:y:2021:i:c:s0190740920322908
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105868
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920322908
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105868?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2004. "Orphans in Africa: parental death, poverty, and school enrollment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(3), pages 483-508, August.
    2. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_orphansafrica is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_orphansafrica.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_orphansafrica is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Paul Gertler & David I. Levine & Minnie Ames, 2004. "Schooling and Parental Death," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 211-225, February.
    6. Abebe, Tatek & Aase, Asbjorn, 2007. "Children, AIDS and the politics of orphan care in Ethiopia: The extended family revisited," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 2058-2069, May.
    7. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_orphansafrica.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bridgman, Grace & von Fintel, Dieter, 2022. "Stunting, double orphanhood and unequal access to public services in democratic South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter J. Glick & David E. Sahn & Thomas F. Walker, 2016. "Household Shocks and Education Investments in Madagascar," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(6), pages 792-813, December.
    2. Jean-Noël Senne, 2014. "Death and schooling decisions over the short and long run in rural Madagascar," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 497-528, April.
    3. Lim, Sung Soo, 2020. "Parental chronic illness and child education: Evidence from children in Indonesia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Ava Cas & Elizabeth Frankenberg & Wayan Suriastini & Duncan Thomas, 2014. "The Impact of Parental Death on Child Well-being: Evidence From the Indian Ocean Tsunami," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 437-457, April.
    5. De Vreyer, Philippe & Nilsson, Björn, 2019. "When solidarity fails: Heterogeneous effects on children from adult deaths in Senegalese households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 73-94.
    6. Dupraz, Yannick & Ferrara, Andreas, 2021. "Fatherless: The Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father in the U.S. Civil War," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 538, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Ueyama, Mika, 2007. "Mortality, mobility, and schooling outcomes among orphans: Evidence from Malawi," IFPRI discussion papers 710, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Rachel Goldberg & Susan Short, 2012. "“The Luggage that isn’t Theirs is Too Heavy…”: Understandings of Orphan Disadvantage in Lesotho," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(1), pages 67-83, February.
    9. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2006. "Orphanhood and the Long-Run Impact on Children," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1266-1272.
    10. Tom S. Vogl, 2012. "Education and Health in Developing Economies," Working Papers 1453, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    11. Gould, Eric & Simhon, Avi, 2011. "Does Quality Time Produce Quality Children? Evidence on the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital using Parental Deat," CEPR Discussion Papers 8258, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Karimli, Leyla & Ssewamala, Fred M. & Ismayilova, Leyla, 2012. "Extended families and perceived caregiver support to AIDS orphans in Rakai district of Uganda," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1351-1358.
    13. Christopher Hearle & Kanchana Ruwanpura, 2009. "Contentious Care: Foster Care Grants and the Caregiver-Orphan Relationship in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 423-437.
    14. Akresh, Richard, 2004. "Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso," IZA Discussion Papers 1379, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Stacey H. Chen & Yen-Chien Chen & Jin-Tan Liu, 2009. "The Impact of Unexpected Maternal Death on Education: First Evidence from Three National Administrative Data Links," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 149-153, May.
    16. Villar, Paola, 2021. "Paternal mortality, early marriages, and marital trajectories in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    17. Kevin Thomas, 2010. "Family Contexts and Schooling Disruption among Orphans in Post-Genocide Rwanda," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(6), pages 819-842, December.
    18. Zacharie Tsala Dimbuene & Barthelemy Kuate Defo, 2013. "Timing of Premarital Intercourse in Bandjoun (West Cameroon)," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(1), pages 21582440134, March.
    19. Sowmya Dhanaraj, 2015. "Health Shocks and Inter-Generational Transmission of Inequality," Working Papers 2015-118, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    20. Eric D. Gould & Avi Simhon & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2020. "Does Parental Quality Matter? Evidence on the Transmission of Human Capital Using Variation in Parental Influence from Death, Divorce, and Family Size," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 569-610.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:121:y:2021:i:c:s0190740920322908. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.