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THE APPARENT NON-SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX IN CHILD UNDERNUTRITION IN INDIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2015

Simantini Mukhopadhyay
Simantini Mukhopadhyay*
Affiliation:
Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, India
*
1Email: simantinihalder@gmail.com
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Summary

The lack of significance of sex in the determination of child nutrition in India, as revealed from the analysis of data from the entire population, is misleading and perplexing. Given that child nutrition is affected by all channels through which sex bias operates, scholars have sought to explain its inconclusive evidence, looking at child-specific household-level factors such as birth order and sex composition of surviving older siblings. The paper points out that sex inequality needs to be examined in the context of its intersection with other consequential social identities such as religious membership, economic status and caste group affiliation. Sex disparity in child stunting is found to be prevalent particularly among upper caste Hindus. However, the relative advantage that poor tribal girls enjoy is reversed with improvement in wealth status. Thus, children in different social settings need customized policy focus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 267 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2015 

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