Does women's schooling translate to their positive health outcomes? A study of rural north India.

Sharmishtha Basu, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Shiv Narayan Sidh, Government Degree College

In India, women and men have nearly the same life expectancy which shows that the typical female advantage in life expectancy is not seen in India, suggesting systemic problems with health of women. The issue of concern is whether the content of schooling lowers the risk of morbidity and mortality among women. The paper tries to examine the pathways (direct or indirect) girls schooling have on their health outcomes and to see whether such effect persists after controlling the influences of income. It uses National Family Health Survey 2005-’06 data. This profile focuses on nutritional status, own health seeking behaviour, reproductive health and health promoting behaviour. Findings illustrate that though the pathways of schooling are murky but with at least 8-10 years of schooling responsiveness to information show a significant effect. Besides, gross effect of health outcomes is due to the socio- economic conditions rather than just schooling.