Making children resilient to poor health: Can the number of children in a household play a role? Evidence from India

Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) in India is staggeringly high (forty-eight) compared to developed countries (Ireland and UK- four) (World Bank, 2016). Such a high mortality rate is mainly because of avoidable causes, for example, pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases account for fifty per cent of all deaths at ages one to fifty nine months in India (Million Death Study Collaborators, 2010). This clearly signifies lack of health care access in India. This study attempts to understand the role played by the number of children in a household in making children resilient to poor health. This has been done by comparing the incidence of medical poverty in households with no child, one child, two children and three or more children, where medical poverty has been defined as a state when a non-poor household falls below the poverty line after incurring health expenses (Xu, 2005). The poverty line has been defined as subsistence spending. The household subsistence spending is the minimum requirement to maintain basic life in a society (Xu, 2005).