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Testing the regional Convergence Hypothesis for the progress in health status in India during 1980–2015

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2020

Mohammad Zahid Siddiqui Open the ORCID record for Mohammad Zahid Siddiqui [Opens in a new window] ,
Srinivas Goli Open the ORCID record for Srinivas Goli [Opens in a new window]  and
Anu Rammohan
Mohammad Zahid Siddiqui*
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India
Srinivas Goli
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India UWA Public Policy Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Anu Rammohan
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Western Australia (M251), Crawley, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The key challenges of global health policy are not limited to improving average health status, with a need for greater focus on reducing regional inequalities in health outcomes. This study aimed to assess health inequalities across the major Indian states used data from the Sample Registration System (SRS, 1981–2015), National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 1992–2015) and other Indian government official statistics. Catching-up plots, absolute and conditional β-convergence models, sigma (σ) plots and Kernel Density plots were used to test the Convergence Hypothesis, Dispersion Measure of Mortality (DMM) and the Gini index to measure progress in absolute and relative health inequalities across the major Indian states. The findings from the absolute β-convergence measure showed convergence in life expectancy at birth among the states. The results from the β- and σ-convergences showed convergence replacing divergence post-2000 for child and maternal mortality indicators. Furthermore, the estimates suggested a continued divergence for child underweight, but slow improvements in child full immunization. The trends in inter-state inequality suggest a decline in absolute inequality, but a significant increase or stationary trend in relative health inequality during 1981–2015. The application of different convergence metrics worked as robustness checks in the assessment of the convergence process in the selected health indicators for India over the study period.

Keywords

Health statusRegional inequalitiesConvergence Hypothesis
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 379 - 395
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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