Dynamics of Gender Inequality in the Health Care of Assam

Abstract

Gender equity is an essential and inevitable factor for the socio-economic prosperity of any society. However, despite this importance there is no level playing field for different genders in our country; be in households, work place, health care and the like. Nonetheless, it is essential that fair rules are provided for all irrespective of any gender in any given political and social set-up which will facilitate in the socio-economic development of the state. Keeping this in view this paper tries to delineate the prevailing gender inequality (inequity) in the state of Assam with the inherent objective of utility for the different stake holders of the society for timely and pragmatic policy formulations.

Objectives-

• To investigate the gender equity in the health care arena of Assam
• To look into the trend in gender equity in maternal and child health care of Assam

Data and Methods-

The study is a quantitative study and it basically used the secondary data from District Level Household and Facility Surveys (DLHS-2, 2002-04 and DLHS-3, 2007-08). Wherever possible the findings of the DLHS-3, 2007-08 has been compared with the findings of the DLHS-2, 2002-04 in order to look into the improvement in the gender equality in health care system. The data on death rate and infant mortality rate (IMR) are taken from Registrar General of India (RGI), 2011. The variables that are used to capture the gender equity are death rate, IMR, preferred sex (male or female) for additional child, gender wise vaccination of children and gender wise vitamin A and IFA supplementation for children.