Gender based within-household inequality in immunization status of children: some evidence from South Asian countries

Using households with a pair of male-female siblings from DHS surveys, this paper estimates gender based within-household inequality in immunization status of children (aged 1-5 years) from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. I find substantial level of gender based within-household inequality in immunization status (with large inter-country variations) in the countries studied. Further, I estimate household fixed-effects models for immunization status and find significant difference between the immunization status of male and female children (with female children at a disadvantaged position) in India and Nepal.