Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/266756 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] Population and Development Review [ISSN:] 1728-4457 [Volume:] 48 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Wiley [Place:] Hoboken, NJ [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 863-882
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
India is one of the most rigidly stratified societies in the world, yet little is known about life expectancy disparities in the country. We provide direct estimates of social differences in life expectancy in India using survey data spanning two decades. We show that individuals from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have drastically and persistently lower life expectancies than high‐caste individuals (between 4.2–4.4 years for women and 6.1–7.0 years for men in 2013–2016). While Muslims had a modest life expectancy disadvantage compared to high castes in 1997–2000, this disadvantage has grown substantially over the past 20 years. Mortality disparities between marginalized and privileged social groups are present across the entire life‐course and are increasingly driven by older‐age mortality. Our findings reveal a pressing need for far greater attention to the health of marginalized populations in India.
Subjects: 
caste
life expectancy
health gradients
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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