be qualified with the absolute number that live in cities and towns since a majority of the tribal population is concentrated in remote rural villages. Stagnation in child mortality among the urban SCs and rural STs despite the state’s focused attempts to reduce it, bears grim news. Unlike the child’s first year, mortality among 1 to 4 year-olds in these groups has not responded to policy interventions, perhaps due to a wider range of socio-economic factors impacting survival at this stage. Few studies document the need to differentiate between age-specific childhood mortality and those that do are limited in their scope to only a few specific tribes (for instance see Kapoor and Kshatriya 2000)<sup>7</sup> . This re-emphasizes the need to shift attention from infant mortality to child mortality as an indicator of tribal deprivation and tailor policy responses accordingly.

**Table 3. Early childhood mortality rates by residence and ethnicity for different cohorts, 2005** Number of deaths per 1000 live births

||Birth|cohort*: 0|to 4|Birth c|ohort: 10 t|o 14|Chan|ge (t2/t1-1|), %|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Overall|Rural|Urban|Overall|Rural|Urban|Overall|Rural|Urban|
|_Neonatal mortality_||||||||||
|Scheduled castes|42.9|46.4|31.1|55.4|62.2|35.0|-23|-25|-11|
|Scheduled tribes|41.9|43.3|28.3|66.5|68.3|45.8|-37|-37|-38|
|Other backward class|38.4|42.1|26.8|53.9|60.0|36.1|-29|-30|-26|
|Other|35.2|38.9|28.2|40.5|45.9|30.8|-13|-15|-8|
|_Post-neonatal mortality_||||||||||
|<br>Scheduled castes|20.8|22.7|14.3|26.2|29.0|18.0|-21|-22|-21|
|Scheduled tribes|21.8|22.7|13.3|33.3|33.1|34.5|-35|-31|-61|
|Other backward class|17.2|17.6|15.5|24.9|26.4|20.8|-31|-33|-25|
|Other|15.2|18.5|9.0|20.5|24.6|13.5|-26|-25|-33|
|_Infant mortality_||||||||||
|<br>Scheduled castes|63.7|69.1|45.4|81.6|91.2|53.0|-22|-24|-14|
|Scheduled tribes|63.7|66.0|41.6|99.8|101.4|80.3|-36|-35|-48|
|Other backward class|55.6|59.7|42.3|78.8|86.4|56.9|-29|-31|-26|
|Other|50.4|57.4|37.2|61.0|70.5|44.3|-17|-19|-16|
|_Child mortality_||||||||||
|Scheduled castes|23.6|24.5|20.6|33.4|37.9|19.9|-29|-35|4|
|Scheduled tribes|37.9|40.2|16.4|39.4|40.3|29.5|-4|0|-44|
|Other backward class|15.2|18.1|6.5|23.6|26.9|14.2|-36|-33|-54|
|Other|9.3|10.9|6.2|18.2|22.1|11.2|-49|-51|-45|
|_Under-five mortality_||||||||||
|<br>Scheduled castes|87.3|93.6|66.0|115.0|129.1|72.9|-24|-27|-9|
|Scheduled tribes|101.6|106.2|58.0|139.2|141.7|109.8|-27|-25|-47|
|Other backward class|70.8|77.8|48.8|102.4|113.3|71.1|-31|-31|-31|
|Other|59.7|68.3|43.4|79.2|92.6|55.5|-25|-26|-22|

_Notes_ : * Birth cohort expressed in years preceding the survey; _Source_ : NFHS-3

**Most states with larger tribal populations also have higher child mortality rates.** While child mortality among STs is high (over 37 deaths per 1000 births for the cohort of children born in 2001-05), the numbers differ considerably across states. Table 4 examines the geographic distribution of mortality rates among STs in India.  Considering only states where STs account for 9 or more percent of the state’s population (at or above their share in the national population), we find that there is significant state-level variation in STs’ childhood mortality (from 8 deaths

> 7 Kapoor and Kshatriya (2000) compute selection potential based on differential fertility and mortality rates for six tribal groups in India: Sahariya, Mina and Bhil of Rajasthan; and Munda, Santal and Lodha of West Bengal. They find that childhood mortality constitutes the bulk of postnatal mortality for all these tribal groups.

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