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Food Consumption Patterns and Malnourished Indian Children: Is there a Link?

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

Abstract

Despite its economic success, India has made little progress towards meeting its Millennium Development Goal targets of reducing undernourishment, particularly among children. Using nationally representative data, our analysis finds evidence of an improvement in the anthropometric measures of height-for-age, but a worsening in weight-for-height z-scores for children aged 0 – 3 over the period 1998 – 2006. There is also a worsening in both cereal consumption and calorie intake over this period, with some of the most noticeable declines taking place in households with children aged 0 – 3. This suggests a possible link between declining food intake and poor nutritional outcomes of children during this period.

Suggested Citation

  • Pushkar Maitra & Anu Rammohan & Ranjan Ray & Marie-Claire Robitaille, 2010. "Food Consumption Patterns and Malnourished Indian Children: Is there a Link?," Monash Economics Working Papers 19-10, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2010-19
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    Cited by:

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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.
    4. Manley, James & Gitter, Seth & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2013. "How Effective are Cash Transfers at Improving Nutritional Status?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 133-155.
    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 consumption; 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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