IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/90550.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Child Malnutrition in India

Author

Listed:
  • Borooah, Vani

Abstract

This chapter examines child malnutrition in India. Even though the incidence of malnutrition in India has declined greatly since Independence, the prevalence of malnutrition in India remains extremely high, even relative to other poor countries. It is, however, difficult to arrive at a universally acceptable explanation for why this should be so. The contribution of this chapter is to examine the relative strengths of the determinants of child malnutrition in India, paying attention to household characteristics (social group, consumption level, education, location) and the characteristics of the households’ dwellings (presence of toilets, separate kitchen, vent in the cooking area). The analysis also examines the importance of anganwadis in combating child malnutrition through growth monitoring, health checks, and the provision of supplementary food. In addition, a unique characteristic of this chapter is that it draws attention to the importance of personal hygiene, through washing hands with soap and water after defecation, as a prophylactic against diarrhoeal disease.

Suggested Citation

  • Borooah, Vani, 2018. "Child Malnutrition in India," MPRA Paper 90550, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:90550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/90550/1/MPRA_paper_90550.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Nisbett, 2017. "A Narrative Analysis of the Political Economy Shaping Policy on Child Undernutrition in India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(2), pages 312-338, March.
    2. Brennan, Lance & McDonald, John & Shlomowitz, Ralph, 2004. "Infant feeding practices and chronic child malnutrition in the Indian states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 139-158, March.
    3. Thomas, Duncan & Lavy, Victor & Strauss, John, 1996. "Public policy and anthropometric outcomes in the Cote d'Ivoire," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 155-192, August.
    4. Osmani, Siddiq & Sen, Amartya, 2003. "The hidden penalties of gender inequality: fetal origins of ill-health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 105-121, January.
    5. Borooah, Vani K., 2004. "Gender bias among children in India in their diet and immunisation against disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1719-1731, May.
    6. Duncan Thomas & John Strauss & Maria-Helena Henriques, 1991. "How Does Mother's Education Affect Child Height?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(2), pages 183-211.
    7. Svedberg, Peter, 2000. "Poverty and Undernutrition: Theory, Measurement, and Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292685.
    8. Tarozzi, Alessandro, 2008. "Growth reference charts and the nutritional status of Indian children," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 455-468, December.
    9. Jean Drèze & Amartya Sen, 2015. "A New India?," Introductory Chapters, in: An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, Princeton University Press.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Borooah, Vani K., 2005. "The height-for-age of Indian children," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 45-65, March.
    2. Steckel, Richard H., 2009. "Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Coffey, Diane, 2015. "Early life mortality and height in Indian states," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 177-189.
    4. Silvia Helena Barcellos & Leandro S. Carvalho & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2014. "Child Gender and Parental Investments in India: Are Boys and Girls Treated Differently?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 157-189, January.
    5. Ueyama, Mika, 2007. "Income growth and gender bias in childhood mortality in developing countries:," IFPRI discussion papers 739, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Swaminathan, Harini & Sharma, Anurag & Shah, Narendra G., 2019. "Does the relationship between income and child health differ across income groups? Evidence from India," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 57-73.
    7. Behrman, Jere R. & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2004. "Correlates and determinants of child anthropometrics in Latin America: background and overview of the symposium," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 335-351, December.
    8. Gustav Ranis & Frances Stewart, 2000. "Strategies for Success in Human Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 49-69.
    9. Bigsten , Arne & Levin, Jörgen, 2000. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty: A Review," Working Papers in Economics 32, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    10. Lars Osberg & Jiaping Shao & Kuan Xu, 2009. "The growth of poor children in China 1991–2000: why food subsidies may matter," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(S1), pages 89-108, April.
    11. Roland Pongou, 2020. "Is Excess (Fe)Male Mortality Caused by the Prenatal Environment, Child Biology, or Parental Discrimination? New Evidence from Male-Female Twins," Working Papers 2008E Classification-I15,, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    12. Lazzaroni, Sara & Wagner, Natascha, 2016. "Misfortunes never come singly: Structural change, multiple shocks and child malnutrition in rural Senegal," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 246-262.
    13. Huang, Rui & Yang, Muzhe, 2015. "Paid maternity leave and breastfeeding practice before and after California's implementation of the nation's first paid family leave program," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 45-59.
    14. Álvarez, Begoña & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2013. "Exploiting subjective information to understand impoverished children's use of health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1194-1204.
    15. 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).
    16. Subha Mani, 2012. "Is there Complete, Partial, or No Recovery from Childhood Malnutrition? – Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(5), pages 691-715, October.
    17. DeLoach, Stephen B. & Lamanna, Erika, 2011. "Measuring the Impact of Microfinance on Child Health Outcomes in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1808-1819.
    18. Harsha Aturupane & Anil B. Deolalikar & Dileni Gunewardena, 2008. "The Determinants of Child Weight and Height in Sri Lanka: A Quantile Regression Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-53, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Satriawan, Elan, 2006. "Does supplementary food program help children during the crisis? Evidence from Indonesian Panel Data," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21210, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Children; malnutrition; India; social groups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:90550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.