Infant mortality in the Indian slums: case studies of Calcutta Metropolis and Raipur City

Based on data collected through interview of 2142 mothers who had experienced live births and/or infant deaths within one year preceding the date of survey in selected slums of Calcutta Metropolis and Raipur City, this study attempts to elucidate and explain the levels, differentials, causes and determinants of infant mortality in the Indian slums. The infant mortality rate (IMR) in the slums was found to be quite high but lower than that in rural India, underlining the importance of ‘urban residence’ as a major controlling factor of infant mortality. The IMR in the slums of Calcutta was about one and a half times that in the slums of Raipur, suggesting that slum infant mortality is far worse in metropolises than in smaller cities. A number of individual-level, household-level and slum-level determinants were examined, and all played some explanatory role, but the differences in neighbourhood environment contributed most substantially to the infant mortality differential between the slums of Calcutta and Raipur. The study also reveals that mere literacy or low educational level is not an effective depressant of infant mortality.