How Far Rural to Urban Migration is Associated with Infant and Child Mortality? Evidence from India

Kunal Keshri, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Increasing urbanization and concomitantly accelerating rural-urban migration in India, provide a good scope to investigate the association of later with the infant and child mortality. This paper is attempts to examine the association of rural-urban migration with infant and early child mortality, using the latest data set of Indian National Family Health Survey, 2005-06. Study documented that rural-urban migrants are found to be ahead of rural natives and behind the urban natives in utilization of maternal and child health care services, while converse is true for infant and child mortality rates. Rural-urban migration is found to be negatively associated with the infant mortality while no significant association has been found with the early child mortality, after controlling for other socioeconomic variables.