IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inddev/v18y2024i3p400-422.html

Revisiting the Linkage of Women’s Decision Making in Agriculture and Nutrition at Micro Level: A Cross-sectional Study from Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Ruchira Bhattacharya

Abstract

This study critically analysed the association of nutritional intake—measured by individual dietary diversity scores (IDDS), with women’s decision-making in agriculture—measured by the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) (modified). The study included 578 dual agricultural households in rural India from cross-sectional primary data collected in 2019 through a probability-proportionate randomised stratified sampling survey. The individual ‘empowerment scores’ were derived from the sub-indices of a contextualised ad hoc WEAI. A modified Wagstaff concentration index titled empowerment ranked concentration index (ErCI) of ‘adequate’ IDDS was estimated with the WEAI ‘empowerment scores’ as underlying rankings. Results showed an average 62.55% of the women with inadequate input in decisions in 43.99% of the domains—mainly due to lack of leisure, inadequate leadership and low input on production decisions. Poor nutrition (low-IDDS) was concentrated among disempowered individuals (ErCI: −0.180; p

Suggested Citation

  • Ruchira Bhattacharya, 2024. "Revisiting the Linkage of Women’s Decision Making in Agriculture and Nutrition at Micro Level: A Cross-sectional Study from Rural India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 400-422, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:18:y:2024:i:3:p:400-422
    DOI: 10.1177/09737030251319910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09737030251319910
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09737030251319910?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kassie, Menale & Fisher, Monica & Muricho, Geoffrey & Diiro, Gracious, 2020. "Women’s empowerment boosts the gains in dietary diversity from agricultural technology adoption in rural Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. Gupta, Soumya & Seth, Payal & Vemireddy, Vidya & Pingali, Prabhu, 2024. "Women’s empowerment and intra-household diet diversity across the urban continuum: Evidence from India’s DHS," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    4. Anderson, C. Leigh & Reynolds, Travis W. & Gugerty, Mary Kay, 2017. "Husband and Wife Perspectives on Farm Household Decision-making Authority and Evidence on Intra-household Accord in Rural Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 169-183.
    5. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Adam Wagstaff & Magnus Lindelow, 2008. "Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data : A Guide to Techniques and Their Implementation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6896, April.
    6. Hazel Jean L. Malapit & Suneetha Kadiyala & Agnes R. Quisumbing & Kenda Cunningham & Parul Tyagi, 2015. "Women's Empowerment Mitigates the Negative Effects of Low Production Diversity on Maternal and Child Nutrition in Nepal," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1097-1123, August.
    7. Sraboni, Esha & Quisumbing, Agnes, 2018. "Women’s empowerment in agriculture and dietary quality across the life course: Evidence from Bangladesh," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 21-36.
    8. Katie Tavenner & Todd A. Crane, 2022. "Hitting the target and missing the point? On the risks of measuring women’s empowerment in agricultural development," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 849-857, September.
    9. Smith, Lisa C. & Haddad, Lawrence, 2015. "Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 180-204.
    10. Bisgrove, Eilene Z. & Popkin, Barry M., 1996. "Does women's work improve their nutrition: Evidence from the urban Philippines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1475-1488, November.
    11. Siân Alice Summerton, 2020. "Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Food Security and Social Protection in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 333-339, August.
    12. Bonis-Profumo, Gianna & Stacey, Natasha & Brimblecombe, Julie, 2021. "Measuring women's empowerment in agriculture, food production, and child and maternal dietary diversity in Timor-Leste," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    13. Kalyani Raghunathan & Samyuktha Kannan & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 2019. "Can women's self‐help groups improve access to information, decision‐making, and agricultural practices? The Indian case," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(5), pages 567-580, September.
    14. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 476-487, August.
    15. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Sproule, Kathryn & Martinez, Elena M. & Malapit, Hazel, 2021. "Do tradeoffs among dimensions of women’s empowerment and nutrition outcomes exist? Evidence from six countries in Africa and Asia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    16. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Watanabe, Naoko, 2003. "On decomposing the causes of health sector inequalities with an application to malnutrition inequalities in Vietnam," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 207-223, January.
    17. Delia Voronca & Rebekah J. Walker & Leonard E. Egede, 2018. "Relationship between empowerment and wealth: trends and predictors in Kenya between 2003 and 2008–2009," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(5), pages 641-649, June.
    18. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    19. Nitya Rao & S. Raju, 2020. "Gendered Time, Seasonality, and Nutrition: Insights from Two Indian Districts," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 95-125, April.
    20. Francis Tsiboe & Yacob A. Zereyesus & Jennie S. Popp & Evelyn Osei, 2018. "The Effect of Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Nutrition and Food Poverty in Northern Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 89-108, July.
    21. Owen O’Donnell & Stephen O’Neill & Tom Van Ourti & Brendan Walsh, 2016. "conindex: Estimation of concentration indices," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 16(1), pages 112-138, March.
    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. Shang, Wenli & Zhou, Ying & Tian, Xu, 2025. "Empowering women, enhancing diets: The impact of women’s bargaining power on dietary quality in urban China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Lentz, Erin & Jensen, Nathan & Lepariyo, Watson & Narayanan, Sudha & Bageant, Elizabeth, 2025. "Adapting the Women’s empowerment in nutrition index: Lessons from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Bonis-Profumo, Gianna & Stacey, Natasha & Brimblecombe, Julie, 2021. "Measuring women's empowerment in agriculture, food production, and child and maternal dietary diversity in Timor-Leste," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Lumet, Kenedy & Gitau, Raphael & Owuor, George, . "The influence of women’s empowerment on poverty reduction: A case of smallholder sugarcane farmers in western Kenya," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 17(3).
    5. Kumar, Neha & Raghunathan, Kalyani & Arrieta, Alejandra & Jilani, Amir & Pandey, Shinjini, 2021. "The power of the collective empowers women: Evidence from self-help groups in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    6. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Sproule, Kathryn & Martinez, Elena M. & Malapit, Hazel, 2021. "Do tradeoffs among dimensions of women’s empowerment and nutrition outcomes exist? Evidence from six countries in Africa and Asia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Gustav Kjellsson & Dennis Petrie & Tom (T.G.M.) van Ourti, 2018. "Measuring income-related inequalities in risky health prospects," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-007/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Mardulier, Myrthe & Maertens, Miet, 2021. "All that is gold does not glitter: Income and nutrition in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Nguyen, Duyen Thuy & Donnelly, Michael & Van Hoang, Minh & O'Neill, Ciaran, 2023. "The case for individualised public health interventions: Smoking prevalence and inequalities in Northern Ireland 1985-2015," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    10. Slawa Rokicki & Mark E. McGovern, 2020. "Heterogeneity in Early Life Investments: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children's Time Use," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 647-676, September.
    11. John E. Ataguba, 2022. "A short note revisiting the concentration index: Does the normalization of the concentration index matter?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1506-1512, July.
    12. Narayanan, Sudha & Lentz, Erin & Fontana, Marzia & De, Anuradha & Kulkarni, Bharati, 2019. "Developing the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index in Two States of India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Mohanty, Sanjay K. & Khan, Junaid & Maiti, Suraj & Kämpfen, Fabrice & Maurer, Jürgen & O'Donnell, Owen, 2025. "Healthcare inequity arising from unequal response to need in the older (45+ years) population of India: Analysis of nationally representative data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    14. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    15. Hashmi, Rubayyat & Alam, Khorshed & Gow, Jeff, 2020. "Socioeconomic inequalities in mental health in Australia: Explaining life shock exposure," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 97-105.
    16. Mutsami, Chrispinus & Maina, Kevin W. & Khonje, Makaiko G., 2025. "Women’s off-farm employment improves household nutrition in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    17. Holland, Cara & Rammohan, Anu, 2019. "Rural women’s empowerment and children’s food and nutrition security in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Nath, Sunetra & Das, Gurudas, 2025. "Does women empowerment impact child well-being? Evidence from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    19. Athina Raftopoulou & Joan Gil Trasfi, 2024. "Income-related inequality in obesity and its determinants in Spain: What happens beyond the obesity threshold?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 135-153, March.
    20. Yount, Kathryn M. & Cheong, Yuk Fai & Maxwell, Lauren & Heckert, Jessica & Martinez, Elena M. & Seymour, Gregory, 2019. "Measurement properties of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:inddev:v:18:y:2024:i:3:p:400-422. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.