Predictors of age-specific child mortality for India

India’s progress in reducing under-five mortality rates is impressive in the past decade but not as much for neonatal or infant mortality. Very few studies have attempted to examine the role of differential impact of predictors like intergenerational transmission, gender, birth order, social, economic and religious characteristics, on the odds of each age-specific mortality (viz., preterm deaths, neonatal, infant and under-five mortality) vis-à-vis survival. The results from the multinomial logit model show that compared to other age-specific mortality, preterm deaths and neonatal mortality have the largest number of statistically significant predictors. Maternal characteristics and birth order compared to environmental and socio-economic conditions have higher odds of avoiding early age mortality, while for avoiding later age mortality all these variables have similar but lower odds ratio. An analysis of this nature hopes to provide better insights for public policy to reduce child mortality and to attain SDG targets at a quicker pace.