Women’s Status and Early Childhood Mortality in Bangladesh

In this article , an attempt has been taken to focus light on the status of women in Bangladesh and also see its effect on early childhood mortality controlling the effect of other associated determinants. This paper examines the proposition that constraints on women's status adversely affect the survival of their children. BDHS 2007 data have been used to construct indices of women's household autonomy and authority , which are then linked to longitudinal data on survival of their neonates. Infant mortality rate (IMR) indicates the number of deaths of babies less than one year of age per 1,000 live births. The rate in a given region, therefore, is the total number of newborns dying under one year of age divided by the total number of live births during the year, then all multiplied by 1,000. Talking about neonatal mortality, early neonatal mortality refers to a death of a live-born baby within the first seven days of life, while late neonatal mortality covers the time after 7 days until before 28 days. The sum of these two represents the neonatal mortality. Neonatal mortality and post neonatal mortality (covering the remaining 11 months of the first year of life) are reflected in the Infant Mortality Rate. The child mortality rate or under-5 mortality rate is the number of children who die by the age of five, per thousand live births. The term "status" includes not only personal and proprietary rights but also duties, liabilities and disabilities. In case of Bangladesh, women's status means her personal rights, proprietary rights, her duties, liabilities and disabilities vis-a-vis the society and her family members. The status of women is an important factor affecting the overall development of a country. The total development of Bangladesh will undoubtedly be hampered if the status of women, constituting about fifty percent of the country's population, remains as low as it is today.