Articles by K Srinivasan

Since the launch of the reproductive and child health policy regime in 1998-99, there has been a massive rise in government expenditure on family welfare programmes in India. This paper makes a systematic effort to assess the performance of the family welfare programmes vis-à-vis the trends in expenditure. The trends in key performance indicators for India and selected states reveal that progress has been slow and limited in the post-rch policy regime. Child immunisation coverage has decelerated, and the increase in the contraceptive prevalence rate and institutional delivery coverage have stalled. Consequently, the pace of reduction in the total fertility rate and infant mortality rate has slowed. Overall, the progress in key programme indicators is found to be incommensurate with rising expenditure.

P N Mari Bhat, senior professor and director of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, passed away suddenly following a massive cardiac arrest on July 30, 2007. He was 56 years old. Mari, as he was fondly called by his friends and colleagues, will be greatly missed. I had,...

In a modern market-oriented economy, possession of basic social and physical necessities of life can be considered the basis of a dividing line of different levels of deprivation. This paper, by using consecutive NFHS data (1992 and 1999), attempts to estimate levels of deprivation based on possessions at the household level of some basic amenities of life. It examines changes in levels of deprivation, categorised as 'abject deprivation', 'moderate deprivation', 'just above deprivation' and 'well above deprivation' across Indian states and also analyses changes in terms of caste and religion.

Revisit Needed K SRINIVASAN Krishnaji in a recent article (EPW, April 1, 2000) has argued that the declines in the sex ratios of the population of the country between 1981 and 1991 Censuses from 934 to 927 (females per 1,000 population) can be largely attributed to increased female foeticide and to discriminatory practices in society which contribute to higher mortality for women. He rules out the possibility of larger underenumeration of women in the 1991 Census quoting the studies by Ashok Mitra and Pravin Visaria based on the 1961 and 1971 Censuses which are not relevant for the analysis of the situation in the 1981 and 1991 Censuses. He has criticised my earlier hypothesis (1994) that there have been substantial omission of women in the country as a whole in the 1991 Census which was based on unacceptably poor sex ratios observed in some of the districts in the country which were politically more tense before the 1991 Census. I also argued that very low ratios (around 800 in some districts) could not have come about because of increased female foeticide, differential mortality or migration.

They Reveal K Srinivasan The widespread large decline in the sex ratios in the country in the last decade in the context of an increasing trend in female life expectancy and such other factors raises the question of whether there was large scale under-enumeration of females in the 1991 Census.