Social disparity in child morbidity and curative care: Investigating for determining factors from rural India

This Working paper is focused on illness prevalence as well as curative care for children under age of five years across different social groups in rural India, and India human development survey (IHDS) data is used to study these aspects. To capture differentials in illness, different demographic, HH economic and sanitation & hygiene indicators have been included whereas, for curative care, structural component of health care delivery is added. This was done mainly due to the fact that SC and ST are poor on both health outcome and also in accessing healthcare services. Univeriate and bivariate analysis have been used for estimation of IPR and their pattern across the social groups. Odds ratio estimates of Multinomial logistic regression has been used to observe differential in illness and curative care across the caste/social groups. The study reveals that social group having poor socio economic development level are poorly performing on reporting of morbidity/illness as well as on curative care behaviour. Availability of government healthcare facility and providers matters more for ST than any other social group. Poor utilization of government health facilities is still a major concern. There is need to create awareness about incidence illnesses, their possible symptoms & signs at community level mainly in the locality where poor and deprive people are living in rural India