Literacy Has Larger Impact on Public Health in India: Study

And at the level of India's 35 states and Union Territories, literacy is the only significant predictor of public health - even poverty gap is not a reliable predictor.

"Economic policies narrowly focused on growth are insufficient when it comes to public health in less developed countries," said Lawrence King, Professor of Sociology and Political Economy and co-author of the study with Cambridge colleagues Keertichandra Rajan and Jonathan Kennedy.

"Higher average income is a statistical red herring: it contributes to better public health mainly to the extent that it reflects high literacy and low poverty," King said.

"Since our models account for differences in individual income and district average income, this is tentative evidence for the psychological and social effects of inequality in a poor country," said Rajan.

"Even if inequality does not lead to more children dying in India, it may generate individual stress and fray social bonds enough to undermine societal well-being," Rajan said.

Overall, researchers feel the study provides support for what its authors call the 'pro-poor position': while economic growth is certainly important, a focus on the most deprived in terms of income as well as other factors such as literacy, may be more effective than improving the average.