Caste, Awareness and Inequality in Access to Maternal and Child Health Programs: Evidence From India

Debayan Pakrashi, Surya Nath Maiti and Sarani Saha
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Surya Nath Maiti: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2022, vol. 163, issue 3, No 12, 1321 pages

Abstract: Abstract Utilization rates for government funded maternal and child health facilities are significantly lower among the disadvantaged caste groups in India compared to that of the general caste individuals, particularly when there is lack of awareness about the existing facilities among the targeted beneficiaries. We use propensity score matching method on detailed data from the fourth and current round of the District Level Household Survey to provide robust evidence that not only does awareness improve utilization of essential healthcare facilities but raising awareness can also bridge to a large extent the gap in utilization rates that exists between the advantaged and disadvantaged caste groups. We also find that the Scheduled tribe population which lag significantly behind the general castes as well as the other disadvantaged caste groups such as Scheduled castes and Other backward classes in terms of utilization of these health facilities stand to gain more from awareness.

Keywords: Inequality; Awareness; Utilization; Health facilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 H75 I14 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-022-02939-0

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