The Role of Women?s Empowerment and Domestic Violence in Child Growth and Undernutrition in a Tribal and Rural Community in South India

Moderate undernutrition continues to affect 46 per cent of children under 5 years of age and 47 per cent of rural women in India. Women?s lack of empowerment is believed to be an important factor in the persistent prevalence of undernutrition. In India, women?s empowerment often varies by community, with tribes sometimes being the most progressive. This paper explores the relationship between women?s empowerment, domestic violence, maternal nutritional status, and the nutritional status and growth over six months in children aged 6 to 24 months in a rural and tribal community. This longitudinal observational study undertaken in rural Karnataka, India included tribal and rural subjects. Structured interviews with mothers were conducted and anthropometric measurements were obtained for 820 mother-child pairs, the follow-up rate after 6 months was 82 per cent. The data were analysed by multivariate regression. Some degree of undernutrition was seen in 83.5 per cent of children and 72.4 per cent of mothers in the sample, moreover the prevalence of undernutrition increased among children at follow-up. Domestic violence was experienced by 34 per cent of mothers in the sample. In multivariate analysis, biological variables explained most of the variance in nutritional status and child growth, followed by health-care seeking and women?s empowerment variables; socio-economic variables explained the least variance. Women?s empowerment variables were significantly associated with child nutrition on enrolment and child growth at follow-up. At follow-up, mother?s prior lifetime experience of physical violence significantly undermined child growth in terms of weight-for-age, and older age at marriage and high mobility of mothers predicted less stunting in their children. In addition to the known investments needed to reduce undernutrition, improving women?s nutrition, promoting gender equality, empowering women, and ending violence against women could further reduce the prevalence of undernutrition in this segment of the Indian population.child nutrition, child growth, domestic violence, nutritional status, women?s empowerment, maternal nutritional status

Effects of the status of women on child growth: A study undertaken in the Mysore region of Karnataka, India

Fifty-three percent of children under-five in India were underweight in 1993. This high prevalence of moderate malnutrition may be linked to the social status of women in South Asia. Within each community in India, women's status varies; tribal communities are the most progressive. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the status of women and child growth. It was undertaken in South India and included tribal and rural subjects. Designed as a two-part study, the first phase used qualitative methods to verify the conceptual framework and inform the survey tool for the second phase. Phase two used this survey tool and anthropometric assessments to longitudinally follow children aged 6-24 months over a period of six months. Structured interviews were conducted with mothers and measurements were obtained on 820 mother-child pairs on enrolment; only children were measured at follow-up. The follow-up rate was 82%. Qualitative findings confirmed that women's status differed between the two groups in important ways, while the socio-economic conditions were similar. These same differences reached statistical significance in the quantitative data. In regression analyses, biological variables explained the most variance in nutritional status followed by nutrition and health, and status of women variables; the socio-economic variables explained the least. Five parameters measured women's status including maternal education, employment, decision-making, freedom of movement, and domestic violence; education was the weakest measure. Excluding education, these variables explained 5.6% of the variance. Domestic violence was highly prevalent. Further analyses show that the experience of physical violence, psychological abuse and sexual coercion have a significant negative association with women's decision-making capability and freedom of movement. Thus, the status of women has a significant effect on child growth. Programmes that aim to reduce malnutrition should consider this aspect. Importantly, community-based interventions that would aim to support and empower women urgently need to be implemented within poor communities

Household-level consumption data can be redistributed for individual-level Optifood diet modeling: analysis from four countries.

A barrier to using Optifood linear programming (LP), which identifies nutrient gaps and supports population-specific food-based recommendation (FBR) development, is the requirement for dietary intake data. We investigated whether Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCESs) could be used instead of individual-level 24-h recalls (24HRs). The 24HR data from 12- to 23-month-old breastfeeding children in rural Kenya, Uganda, Guatemala, and Bangladesh were paired with HCES food consumption data from similar areas (n = 8) and time periods. HCES food intakes (g/week) were estimated using adult male equivalents, adjusted for breastfeeding. Paired HCES- and 24HR-defined LP inputs and outputs were compared using percentage agreement. Mean overall percentage agreements were 42%, 63%, and 80%, for food, food subgroup, and food-group model parameters, respectively. HCES food lists were on average 1.3 times longer than 24HR. Similar nutrient gaps (77-100% agreement), food sources of nutrients (71-100% agreement), and FBRs (80-100% agreement) were identified. The results suggest that HCES data can be used in Optifood analyses for 12- to 23-month-old children, despite recognized challenges of using it to estimate dietary intakes of young children compared with older age groups. Further analyses, however, are required for different age groups and locations to confirm expectations that it would perform equally well