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Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program

Author

Listed:
  • Suman Chakrabarti

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • Samuel P. Scott

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • Harold Alderman

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • Purnima Menon

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • Daniel O. Gilligan

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

Abstract

India has the world’s highest number of undernourished children and the largest school feeding program, the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. As school feeding programs target children outside the highest-return “first 1000-days” window, they have not been included in the global agenda to address stunting. School meals benefit education and nutrition in participants, but no studies have examined whether benefits carry over to their children. Using nationally representative data on mothers and their children spanning 1993 to 2016, we assess whether MDM supports intergenerational improvements in child linear growth. Here we report that height-for-age z-score (HAZ) among children born to mothers with full MDM exposure was greater (+0.40 SD) than that in children born to non-exposed mothers. Associations were stronger in low socioeconomic strata and likely work through women’s education, fertility, and health service utilization. MDM was associated with 13–32% of the HAZ improvement in India from 2006 to 2016.

Suggested Citation

  • Suman Chakrabarti & Samuel P. Scott & Harold Alderman & Purnima Menon & Daniel O. Gilligan, 2021. "Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24433-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w
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    4. Neha Agarwal & Anaka Aiyar & Andrew Bergmann & Joseph Cummins & Jingyan Guo & Vaishali Jain, 2024. "Caste Differences in Child Growth: Disentangling Endowment and Investment Effects," Working Papers 202401, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.

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