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Food consumption patterns and malnourished Indian children: Is there a link?

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  • Maitra, Pushkar
  • Rammohan, Anu
  • Ray, Ranjan
  • Robitaille, Marie-Claire

Abstract

Despite its economic success, India has made little progress towards meeting its Millennium Development Goal targets of reducing undernourishment, particularly among children. In this paper, we use nationally representative datasets, the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS II and NFHS III) and the National Sample Survey (55th and the 61st rounds) to analyse the link, if any, between child nutritional outcomes and calorie intakes. Our analysis finds evidence of an improvement in the height-for-age z-scores, but a worsening in weight-for-height z-scores for children aged 0–3 over the period 1998/1999–2005/2006. There is also evidence of a sharp decline in per adult equivalent calorie intake from the principal food items over roughly this same period. Moreover, this decline was observed across all the expenditure quintiles. Our analysis is therefore able to identify a co-movement of declining nutritional intake for both adults and children and a lack of progress in improving nutritional outcomes of children.

Suggested Citation

  • Maitra, Pushkar & Rammohan, Anu & Ray, Ranjan & Robitaille, Marie-Claire, 2013. "Food consumption patterns and malnourished Indian children: Is there a link?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 70-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:38:y:2013:i:c:p:70-81
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2012.10.004
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    2. Nie, Peng & Rammohan, Anu & Gwozdz, Wencke & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2016. "Developments in Undernutrition in Indian Children Under Five: A Decompositional Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 9893, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sarah E. Weingarten & Kirk A. Dearden & Benjamin T. Crookston & Mary E. Penny & Jere R. Behrman & Debbie L. Humphries, 2020. "Are Household Expenditures on Food Groups Associated with Children’s Future Heights in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-23, July.
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    5. Hebous, Sarah & Klonner, Stefan, 2014. "Economic Distress and Farmer Suicides in India: An Econometric Investigation," Working Papers 0565, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    6. Balarajan, Yarlini & Reich, Michael R., 2016. "Political economy of child nutrition policy: A qualitative study of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 88-98.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    India; Weight-for-height; Height-for-age; Calorie intake; Expenditure patterns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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