Does Paternal Exposure to an Industrial Disaster Affect Early Life Health Investments of Children?

Sarthak Agarwal, Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow
Somdeep Chatterjee, Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta
Shreyasee Das, Temple University

While direct exposure to industrial disasters can adversely impact individuals' physical and mental health outcomes, little is known about the intergenerational effects of these health hazards. In this paper, we exploit how men's exposure to a catastrophic industrial disaster in India, the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster, affected their children's breastfeeding outcomes. Using the 4th round of the National Family Health Survey, our results indicate a significant decrease in breastfeeding, including a reduced likelihood of being breastfed within an hour of birth and for three months after birth. We also find that such reduced breastfeeding in turn necessitates complementary feeding practices and feeding support from health workers. The effects persist independent of the mother's exposure. We postulate the underlying mechanism to be the compromised health of the fathers and lack of paternal support before delivery. Our paper is one of the very few that contribute to the scant literature on the long-lasting intergenerational effects of exposure to industrial disasters.

Keywords: Population and Development, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Economic Demography

See paper.