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Religion and Health in Early Childhood: Evidence from South Asia

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  • Elizabeth Brainerd
  • Nidhiya Menon

Abstract

type="main"> This article studies early childhood health in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, focusing on inequalities in anthropometric outcomes by religious adherence. India and Nepal have Hindu majorities, while Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim. The results suggest that Muslim infants have an advantage over Hindu infants in height-for-age in India (for boys and girls) and in Bangladesh (for boys). However, this advantage disappears beyond 12 months of age, at which point Hindu children in all three countries are found to have significantly better anthropometric outcomes than Muslim children. We report tests that rule out mortality selection and undertake falsification and robustness exercises that confirm these findings. Further results suggest that exposure to Ramadan fasting in utero may lead to positive selection of Muslim male infants, partially explaining the Muslim infant health advantage, but this does not fully explain the shift from Muslim advantage in infancy to Hindu advantage in childhood in all three countries.

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  • Elizabeth Brainerd & Nidhiya Menon, 2015. "Religion and Health in Early Childhood: Evidence from South Asia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 439-463, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:41:y:2015:i:3:p:439-463
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00067.x
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    3. G. Naline & Brinda Viswanathan, 2017. "Predictors of Age-Specific Childhood Mortality in India," Working Papers 2017-167, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    4. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
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    7. Menon, Nidhiya & McQueeney, Kathleen, 2020. "Christianity and girl child health in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Prakarsh Singh, 2020. "Searching for religious discrimination among childcare workers," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 362-382, May.
    9. Orratai Waleewong & Khanuengnij Yueayai, 2022. "Patterns of Socioeconomic Inequities in SDGs Relating to Children’s Well-Being in Thailand and Policy Implications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-15, October.
    10. Calvi, Rossella & Mantovanelli, Federico G., 2018. "Long-term effects of access to health care: Medical missions in colonial India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 285-303.

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