Gaps in Life Expectancy Between Indigenous and Nonindigenous Population: Have They Shrunk or Widened Over the Last Two Censuses in India?

Akhilesh Yadav , Banaras Hindu University
Minakshi Vishwakarma, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Indigenous people are often at the bottom of socioeconomic development parameters in India. This paper tries to explore the differential in life expectancy at birth (le0) among the indigenous and non-indigenous population at national and selected state level in India. The results show that there is the existence of a significant difference in the le0 among indigenous (62.6 years) and non-indigenous (66.0 years) groups in all over India. Although the life expectancy at birth has increased in the last one decade, but the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous has not narrowed down significantly. In certain cases, the situation is even worse where the gap has increased. Life expectancy at birth of indigenous population is found lower than the life expectancy at birth of people who are poor and resident of rural both of which make the condition of the indigenous population more severe.

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 Presented in Session 11. Health & Mortality 2