Adult Male Mortality in India: An Application of the Widowhood Method

Nandita Saikia, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Faujdar Ram, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

This paper presents levels and trends of adult male mortality in India and its 16 major states during the post-independence period obtained by applying the widowhood method on census data. In addition, it attempts to estimate adult male mortality at local levels. We adjusted our estimates for possible bias due to remarriages and examined the sensitivity of the adjusted estimates to different scenarios of remarriage rates. A comparison of widowhood estimates with direct estimates from official sources supports the credibility of widowhood estimates. Trends in adult mortality suggest the maximum gain in for India as a whole and most of the states occurred in1949-1960. Adult male mortality varied substantially across the states of India. The rate of mortality reduction in India has been decreasing over the last few decades.The widowhood method can be effectively used to estimate adult male mortality at local levels for which readymade estimates are not available.