Impact of migration on child health in urban India: Evidence from NFHS-3

Using data from the third round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2005-06), the present study examined the effect of quality of housing on the risk of anthropometric failure and child health status among migrant and non-migrant children in urban India. It is very urgent to from the policy and program perspective to understand whether source of safe drinking water, type of toilet facilities, and type of housing and cooking fuel really make a difference when it comes to the health and nutritional status of Indian children, particularly the urban poor. The main findings from the present studies indicate the poor nutritional and health status of migrant and non-migrant children in urban India. There were also large interstate disparities in anthropometric failures and ARI & diarrhea among migrant and non-migrant children across various Indian states. Result from the multivariate analysis suggest that poor source of sanitation facilities and poor quality of housing significantly raised the risk of stunting and diarrhea, whereas use of safe cooking fuel reduces the likelihood of ARI among children in urban India. However, we do not find any significant effect of quality of housing on the risk of underweight and wasting. Furthermore, few of the findings from the analysis appear in opposite directions that should be interpreted with caution which might be possible due to small sample size in few categories. Therefore, we need further in-depth research at micro-level to explore the plausible mechanism of how does housing quality influence child health and nutritional status in urban India.