Death Clustering among the Tribes of Central and Eastern Indian States

Abstract

Present study attempts to assess family level death clustering among mothers of central in the tribes and eastern Indian states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Random effect logit model was applied to assess the family level death clustering using micro-data of National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-06), India. The raw data analysis show the s existence of clustering in all four states with maximum and minimum clustering exists among tribes of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand respectively. The most important factor which increases the risk of infant deaths is the causal effect of any previous infant death in families on the risk of infant death on subsequent siblings (a scarring effect), after controling for mother-level unobserved heterogeneity. Mother-level unobserved factors was found to be significant for the tribes of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh while in the states of Orissa and Chhattisgarh unobservable at mother level have limited power to explain death clustering. Results also shows that high-risk tribal families are more exposed to short birth intervals and are likely to reach higher parities in their attempts to achieve their desired family size.