proportion of children surviving from birth to their first birthday of 0.9752. Column 7 thus shows the survival function, S(t). From this we obtain an infant (i.e., under-one) mortality rate of 24.8 per 1,000 live births. Column 9 gives the standard error of the cumulative proportion surviving, or equivalently the standard error of the mortality rate from birth to the end of the interval in question. Column 10 gives this expressed as a proportion of the mortality rate. The final column shows the hazard rate, A(t)-the rate at which S(t) decreases over time, -dlnS(t)/dt. Finally, the bottom row of column 8 gives the under-five mortality rate, 5qo, which in this case is 35.8 per 1.000 live births, with a standard error equal to 7.5 percent of the mortality rate.

**Table 1. Life table from 1998 VLSS**

|1<br>Start<br>of<br>interval|2<br>End<br>of<br>Interval|3<br>No.<br>entering<br>Interval|4<br>No.<br>withdrawn<br>during<br>Interval|5<br>No.<br>exposed<br>to risk|6<br>No.<br>deaths|7<br>Cumul.<br>proportion<br>surviving<br>atend|8<br>Mortality<br>rate<br>xqo|9<br>Stderror<br>ofcumul.<br>proportion<br>surviving|10<br>Relative<br>std error|11<br>Hazard<br>rate|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|0.0|0.5|5316|195|5219|114|0.9782|21.8|0.0020|0.0917|0.044|
|0.5|1.0|5007|159|4928|15|0.9752|24.8|0.0022|0.0887|0.006|
|1.0|1.5|4833|<br>176|4745|12|0.9727|27.3|0.0023|0.0842|0.005|
|1.5|2.0|4645|<br>190|4550|4|0.9719|28.1|0.0023|0.0819|0.002|
|2.0|<br>2.5|4451|198|4352|15|0.9685|31.5|0.0025|0.0794|0.007|
|2.5|3.0|4238|189|4144|0|0.9685|31.5|0.0025|0.0794|0.000|
|3.0|3.5|4049|<br>226|3936|13|0.9653|34.7|0.0026|0.0749|0.007|
|3.5|<br>4.0|3810|228|3696|0|0.9653|34.7|0.0026|0.0749|0.000|
|4.0|4.5|3582|232|3466|4|0.9642|35.8|0.0027|0.0754|0.002|
|4.5|5.0|3346|286|3203|0|0.9642|35.8|0.0027|0.0754|0.000|

Figure 3 compares the infant and under-five mortality rates estimates from the 1993 and 1998 VLSS and the 1997 DHS. In each case, for ease of comparison, the rates shown are those computed using children born in five-year intervals. The markers in the chart are placed at the year in the middle of the five-year interval. In the case of the DHS, all the rates reported were computed using data in the 1997 DHS,<sup>5</sup> whereas in the case of the VLSS we have shown the rates for the corresponding VLSS-i.e., the rate for 1990 is computed on births recorded in the 1993 VLSS over the preceding five years, and the rate for 1995 is computed on births recorded in the 1998 VLSS in the five years prior to the survey.<sup>6 7</sup> Two points are worth making. First, the DHS and VLSS, once again, show a fair amount of consistency, especially the rates computed from the 1998 VLSS which are well in line with simple projections from the DHS estimates. Second, the directly estimated rates are somewhat lower than the majority of the indirectly estimated rates,

> 5 The rates are those reported in Table 7.4 (p. 84) of the DHS report.

> 6 **The** 1998 VLSS estimates were based on data that were weighted using the sarnpling weights. **7The** mortality estimates obtained from the 1998 VLSS for the five years 1988-92 were somewhat lower than those obtained from the 1993 VLSS data for the same period.

6