SURGE’16

Health status of Indian widows

Ayush Agrawal
Mentor: Dr. Debayan Pakrashi
 Abstract:
• In traditional Indian society, the sudden demise of husband is associated
with the inauspiciousness brought by a wife. Thus the widows are
stigmatized, alienated and punished for none of their own sins. Moreover in
some parts of India men are still expected to work outside and financially
support the family whereas women are supposed to look after the children
and manage the household chores. The tragic death of husband thus leads to
economic hardship for the family. The inhuman attitude of society towards
a widow and the financial crisis creates turmoil in a widow’s life and makes
them vulnerable to poor health status.
• This study primarily focuses on the difference in health status of widows
and married women from Hindu household. We find that despite of the
transformation in the basic cultural norms of Indian society and rapid
economic growth, the health status of widows in India still remains
deplorable. Our results also explain on how women empowerment,
education and participation in government schemes help in improving the
health status of widows.
 Why is this project important?

The condition and plight of widows in Indian society is a matter of great

concern. Even in the 21st century widows in our country faces a number of
social and economic discrimination.
In India where mostly, men are supposed to work outside and women are
meant to look after the households. Therefore the sudden death of a husband,
who was a bread earner for the family, can adversely affect the health of a
wife. Hence making the widow’s vulnerable to lack of proper nutrition and
care which paves the path for numerous health related problems.
This project is an attempt to look for various factors which can affect the
health of Indian widows and then address those factors in the right direction
so as to uplift their living conditions.
 Data:
• To achieve our purpose, we have used India Human Development Survey
(IHDS) dataset ,which is a multi-topic survey of 41,554 households in
1503 villages and 971 urban areas. The first round of this survey was done
in 2004-05 .The second round of survey was done in 2011-12 .IHDS-II re-
interviewed around 83% of IHDS-I household.
 Methodology:
Multiple linear regression and its estimation using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method
has been used to find the association between outcome variable and a set of independent
variables.
The general form of a multiple regression model is:
Y= a1X1 + a2X2 + a3X3 +………+ anXn + u
where Y is outcome variable, Xi’s are independent variables and u is an error term.
List of Y variables: BMI, Incidence of underweight
Main Independent variable: Marital dummy(widow vs married women)
Control variables: Primary household occupation (Agricultural/Non-
agricultural/Business etc.), Household size, Age, state, Household religion, Category
(General/SC/ST/Others), Region of residence (urban/rural), Family income, Education
level, and State of residence.
Linear Probability model has been used to estimate the difference in incidence of
underweight between a widow and a married woman.
 Comparison of BMI:

• Map shows the average BMI of widows across different Indian states.
 Comparison of Incidence of Underweight:

• Map shows the average incidence of underweight among widows across different
Indian states.
 Regression results
Effect of household religion:
Baseline Regression (Hindu households) Fixed Effects Regression Placebo Test (Muslim households)

             
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight
Panel A: Regression without controls    
Marital dummy -0.131* 0.027*** 0.132 0.025** 0.060 0.029*
  (0.069) (0.007) (0.093) (0.010) (0.184) (0.016)
Observations 61,772 61,772 61,772 61,772 8,895 8,895
R-squared 0.057 0.027 0.038 0.004 0.080 0.047
Adj.R-squared 0.0570 0.0264 0.0380 0.00391 0.0767 0.0438

Baseline Regression (Hindu households) Fixed Effects Regression Placebo Test (Muslim households)
             
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight
Panel B: Regression with all controls    
Marital dummy -0.321*** 0.017** -0.202** 0.017 -0.166 0.023
  (0.071) (0.007) (0.100) (0.011) (0.204) (0.019)
Observations 60,859 60,859 60,859 60,859 8,761 8,761
R-squared 0.199 0.075 0.083 0.013 0.160 0.070
Adj.R-squared 0.198 0.0737 0.0822 0.0124 0.155 0.0649
 Impact of marriage customs and social networks:
Panel A: Role of Marriage Customs Marriage within same village Marriage outside the village Marriage within caste Inter-caste marriage
 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy -0.229 -0.006 -0.363*** 0.021** -0.314*** 0.015 -1.068*** 0.053
  (0.249) (0.023) (0.094) (0.010) (0.091) (0.009) (0.350) (0.042)
Observations 5,834 5,834 47,372 47,372 50,776 50,776 2,423 2,423
R-squared 0.211 0.099 0.199 0.071 0.199 0.073 0.241 0.101
Adj R-squared 0.204 0.0911 0.198 0.0696 0.199 0.0721 0.225 0.0810
Panel B: Role of Family Help from both families Help from neither of family Sister/aunt married in same family No sister/aunt in same family
 

Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy -0.375*** 0.016 -0.927*** 0.059 -0.495* 0.032 -0.373*** 0.019**
  (0.138) (0.013) (0.307) (0.038) (0.270) (0.029) (0.096) (0.010)
Observations 22,948 22,948 2,037 2,037 5,240 5,240 44,159 44,159
R-squared 0.197 0.078 0.224 0.074 0.188 0.072 0.202 0.072
Adj R-squared 0.195 0.0760 0.205 0.0507 0.181 0.0632 0.201 0.0713
Panel C: Role of Social Networks Member of Mahila Mandal Not a member of Mahila Mandal Member of Self-help group Not a member of SHG

Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy 0.268 -0.005 -0.370*** 0.018* -0.149 0.008 -0.362*** 0.018*
  (0.406) (0.031) (0.108) (0.011) (0.268) (0.025) (0.112) (0.011)
Observations 1,702 1,702 27,118 27,118 4,184 4,184 24,636 24,636
R-squared 0.193 0.106 0.207 0.086 0.169 0.074 0.215 0.090
Adj R-squared 0.169 0.0793 0.205 0.0843 0.159 0.0635 0.213 0.0879
 Impact of Government schemes:
Panel A: Role of Government Policies Household benefited from Awas Yojna Not benefited from Awas Yojna Household with Kisan credit card No KCC
                 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy 0.270 0.033 -0.301*** 0.012 0.064 0.019 -0.319*** 0.015**
  (0.317) (0.035) (0.082) (0.008) (0.377) (0.037) (0.072) (0.007)
Observations 1,856 1,856 33,263 33,263 3,284 3,284 57,421 57,421
R-squared 0.140 0.070 0.202 0.088 0.151 0.071 0.202 0.076
Adj R-squared 0.120 0.0483 0.201 0.0865 0.139 0.0569 0.201 0.0748
Panel B: Role of Government Policies Household with ration card No ration card Household with APL card Household with no APL
card
                 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy -0.310*** 0.013* -0.528** 0.056** -0.214** -0.002 -0.288*** 0.027***
  (0.074) (0.007) (0.215) (0.024) (0.104) (0.009) (0.092) (0.010)
Observations 52,108 52,108 8,735 8,732 29,554 29,537 31,320 31,304
R-squared 0.198 0.074 0.208 0.084 0.200 0.073 0.163 0.063
Adj R-squared 0.197 0.0731 0.203 0.0787 0.198 0.0715 0.161 0.0611
 Effect of place of residence and working status
Panel A: Place of Residence & Employment Largest 6 metro cities Non-metros Working women Non-working women
                 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy 0.045 0.005 -0.351*** 0.016** -0.040 0.004 -0.567** 0.041
  (0.262) (0.018) (0.073) (0.008) (0.146) (0.015) (0.252) (0.029)
Observations 6,040 6,040 54,819 54,819 7,923 7,923 4,790 4,790
R-squared 0.144 0.056 0.191 0.068 0.183 0.076 0.212 0.098
Adj R-squared 0.140 0.0509 0.190 0.0668 0.178 0.0699 0.204 0.0880
Panel B: Role of Diet Vegetarian household Non-vegetarian household Vegetarian dominated states Non-vegetarian dominated states
                 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy -0.458*** 0.012 -0.197** 0.013 -0.308*** 0.014 -0.332*** 0.017
  (0.138) (0.013) (0.095) (0.009) (0.099) (0.010) (0.105) (0.011)
Observations 10,784 10,784 24,432 24,432 28,539 28,539 28,529 28,529
R-squared 0.216 0.076 0.200 0.095 0.208 0.083 0.195 0.066
Adj R-squared 0.213 0.0722 0.198 0.0932 0.207 0.0816 0.194 0.0648
Panel C: Role of Age & Education Age greater than 50 Age less than or equal to 50 Education greater than 10 std. Education less than or equal to 10th
th

                 
Variables of Interest BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of BMI Incidence of
underweight underweight underweight underweight

Marital dummy -0.120 0.005 -0.382*** 0.022** -0.140 0.018 -0.305*** 0.017**
  (0.111) (0.010) (0.088) (0.009) (0.356) (0.022) (0.072) (0.007)
Observations 7,830 7,830 53,029 53,029 7,059 7,059 53,800 53,800
R-squared 0.212 0.108 0.198 0.072 0.200 0.079 0.180 0.066
Adj R-squared 0.206 0.102 0.198 0.0713 0.194 0.0723 0.180 0.0654
 Conclusion:
• Our result shows that amongst Hindu households the BMI of widows is 32.1% less
than that of married women. Also in Hindu households the incidence of
underweight is significantly higher for widows in contrast to the married women.
The incidence of underweight amongst Hindu widows increases by around 1.7%
which clearly shows their vulnerability to poor health conditions.
• We find that amongst those women who are member of mahila mandals there is no
statistically significant health difference between widows and married women in
terms of both BMI and incidence of underweight. Amongst the women who are not
member of mahila mandals we find that widows have 37% lesser BMI to that of
married women. There is no difference in incidence of underweight in this case.
• We also find that amongst those living in largest six metropolitan cities of India
there is no significant difference between widows and married women on both the
anthropometric indicators. For those living in non-metros, the BMI of widows is
35.1% lesser and the incidence of underweight is 1.6% higher in comparison to the
married women.
• We find evidence that amongst the women having educational level greater than
10th standard there is no significant difference in BMI and incidence of underweight
of widows and married women. Amongst women having education less than or
equal to 10th standard, the widows have around 30.5% lesser BMI than the married
women. In this case, they also have 1.7% higher chances of being underweight than
the married women.