| Abstract | Strong preference for sons in South Asia is well documented, but evidence on  female disadvantage in childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status is  inconclusive. This paper examines sex differentials in indicators of childhood feeding,  health care, and nutritional status of children under age 3 by birth order and sex  composition of older living siblings. Data are from India’s 1992-93 and 1998-99  National Family Health Surveys. The analysis finds three reasons for inconclusive  evidence on female disadvantage in aggregate analyses. First, discrimination against girls  is limited to children of certain birth orders and sex compositions of older siblings, who  constitute a relatively small fraction of all children. Second, discrimination against girls  when boys are in short supply and discrimination against boys when girls are in short  supply cancel each other to some extent. Third, some discrimination against girls (e.g., in  exclusive breastfeeding at 6-9 months) is nutritionally beneficial to girls. Separate  analyses for north and south India find that gender discrimination is as common in south  India as in the north, where son preference is generally much stronger.  |