Child Care and Health Outcome in India

S. Kaushik, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A common observation in developing countries such as India is the functioning of a traditional child care system. Older children, for example, often take care of their brothers and sisters. Women who regularly work outside the home depend on their relatives to provide for child care. Recently, however, there is a growing demand for institutional child care facilities. Underlying the functioning of the traditional child care system is the assumption that children are being well taken care of. In this paper we assess health effects of child care by non-mothers in a traditional setting using data from the National Family Health Surveys of India, I and II. Logistic regression analyses show statistically significant health consequences of different types of child care. Compared with mothers, children who are taken care by non-mothers have higher chance of diarrhea, cough and fever. Sex differentials prevail irrespective of the child-care given.