Gender Differences in Healthcare-Seeking During Common Illnesses in a Rural Community of West Bengal, India (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Inequalities in gender, in one form or the other, with considerable regional differences, are ubiquitously present and all-pervasive (1-5). In health, these are manifested in differences in mortality (6-9). Discrimination and gender gaps have been observed even in early years of life (10-12). Girls, aged less than five years, in India show steadily high mortality compared to boys (10,11). Although overall sex ratio in India has improved from 927 to 933 in the last decade, it declined from 945 to 927 in children aged less than six years (11). Besides, other discriminatory treatment-seeking practices probably contribute to this (13-17). Relatively fewer studies have been undertaken in western part of India (13), whereas there is a lack of information from eastern part of India. In western India and Bangladesh, cross-sectional surveys of practitioners and care providers reported discriminatory care-seeking for boys and girls (13,14). Differences in intra-household resource allocation have also been reported from many developing countries (18-20).