Life expectancy at birth and life disparity: an assessment of sex differentials in mortality in India

This study aims to examine the sex differentials in life expectancy at birth and life disparity, and to estimate the age-specific contribution of the differences for India and its major states. Life dispari-ty measures the variation in the distribution of deaths, and life expectancy at birth measures the average length of life. Complete life tables generated from death rates and abridged life tables of the Sample Reg-istration System in India from 1970–1975 to 2006–2010 were used to fulfill the research goals. Stepwise replacement algorithm was used for the decomposition of sex differences in life expectancy at birth and in life disparity. The results indicate that the increase in life expectancy at birth and decline in life disparity was higher for females. The sex differential was more prominent in urban areas than in rural areas. A ma-jority of the states in India experienced changes in the direction and magnitude of sex differentials in life expectancy at birth and life disparity from 1970–1975 to 2006–2010. The sex differentials in life expec-tancy at birth and life disparity in 1970–1975 were primarily attributed to child mortality, whereas the sex differentials in recent decades were attributed to adult mortality.