Gauging Class and Caste differences in Mortality: The Indian Experience

This study is an exposition of class-caste based differences in mortality experience based on an indicator called household prevalence of death. It involves 75,432 death cases collected in National Family Health Survey-4, analysed using Relative Deprivation Index (RDI). We found, the prevalence of death found to be 11.8% in India, which varies across states and social and economic groups. The RDI values depict that the poorer households along with social group identities like schedule tribe and schedule caste households displayed a uniform disadvantage as regarding mortality across many states. The analysis offers evidence on differential experience of mortality across socio-economic identities. The evidence suggests poorer states having a marked disadvantage along with social and economic classes.