There is a strong cross-disciplinary consensus on female education promoting infant
survival. This exploratory case study reassesses this relationship through a contrasting
case. The crucial case analysis asks why impoverished Bangladesh of poorly educated
women is making significant progress with infant survival. Both female education and
infant survival need to be examined in the context of surrounding social dynamics. The
author’s regression analysis on the social dynamics of the infant survival in 60 countries
of medium human development (in the Human Development Index 2009) forms the basis
for this case analysis and limits the set of key explanations. The observed variables are
female secondary schooling rate, gender parity in secondary schooling, the level of GDP,
two poverty measures, breastfeeding rate, immunization ratio and fertility rate Beyond
the pre-tested factors, the paper analyzes new factors which need to be addressed as
potential explanations for better infant survival.
In Bangladesh health services reach better the population than education does. Many
maternal and child health services have good (compared to other countries of the
reference group) coverage among the population, which contributes positively to infant
survival.