Female work participation and child health: An investigation in rural Tamil Nadu, India. Health Transition Review 7

This paper seeks to examine the linkage between mothers ’ work and child health. The data are from a survey of 75 working and 75 non-working women in a village in Tamil Nadu, India. The results show that the working women spend on an average 1.7 hours less than the non-working women on child care. The duration of breastfeeding also is shorter among the working women. The morbidity rates were higher for the children of working women than for the children of non-working women. Logistic regression analysis showed that the children of working women are at a significantly greater risk of morbidity even when socio-economic factors are controlled. The results, however, do not show a significant variation in morbidity by sex. Traditionally a woman's place has been at home and a generation ago, her employment outside the home was looked down upon by the society. This situation has now changed and women have started seeking employment outside their homes through gross economic necessity followed by the desire to raise economic status, to have an independent income, to make use of education, to pursue a career etc. In rural areas, however, poor women may go to work mainly out of sheer economic necessity