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9 - Malnutrition Status of Women, Children, and Adolescents in India and its Relation with Educational Attainment
- Edited by K. S. James, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, T. V. Sekher, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai
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- Book:
- India Population Report
- Published online:
- 15 August 2023
- Print publication:
- 30 June 2024, pp 313-346
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Summary
Introduction
India is going through a rapid socio-economic transition resulting in considerable changes in dietary patterns and nutrition levels among different sections of the population. Despite several policy initiatives to combat malnutrition (Ministry of Women and Child Development, n.d.) over the past more than four decades, the level of malnutrition in India remains abysmally high. Malnutrition was the top cause of death and disability in India in 2017, followed by dietary risks, including poor diet choices, according to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease study (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation [IHME], 2018). The groups at the greatest risk of malnutrition are children, adolescents, and women. According to the 2020 Global Nutrition Report, every second child under five years of age in India is malnourished in some form or the other, with a prevalence of wasting being 21 per cent and stunting being 38 per cent – both figures notably greater than the than the average for Asia, where the wasting level is over 9 per cent and stunting level 23 per cent (Development Initiatives, 2020). Additionally, 36 per cent of children under five years of age are underweight, while 2 per cent are overweight (International Institute for Population Sciences [IIPS] and ICF International, 2017). A poor nutritional status, particularly in early life, can have lifelong consequences on physical and psychological well-being and can also impair long-term employment opportunities (Black et al., 2013).
The proportion of under-nutrition among women of reproductive ages declined from 36 per cent in 2005–06 to 23 per cent in 2015–16; at the same time, the proportion of over-nourished (overweight or obese) women increased from 13 per cent to 21 per cent. Maternal under-nutrition contributes to foetal growth restriction, which increases the risk of neonatal deaths and, for survivors, stunting by two years of age (Black et al., 2013), thus passing on the burden of under-nutrition to the next generation.
School-age children and adolescents, too, are affected by under-nutrition and over-nutrition, but they failed to gain attention until the recent past; women and child health, particularly the health of children below the age of five years, had been the focus of researchers and policymakers all these years. According to a study on worldwide trends, more children and adolescents aged 5–19 years are moderately or severely underweight than obese (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration [NCD-RisC], 2017).
Missing men in family planning: understanding the socio-spatial differentials in male sterilization and male spacing methods of contraception in India
- Ranjan Kumar Prusty, Shahina Begum
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- Journal:
- Journal of Biosocial Science / Volume 55 / Issue 1 / January 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 December 2021, pp. 116-130
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Male involvement in family planning results in improved reproductive health and gender outcomes for women. In India, the use of family planning methods remains largely female-dominated. Recent media reports have indicated a rapid decline in male sterilization use in the past few years. This study aimed to assess the trends in, patterns of and factors associated with the use of male sterilization and male spacing methods in India using data from four rounds of the National Family Health Survey, conducted from 1992 to 2016. Bivariate analysis was done to see the trends in, and patterns of, male sterilization and spacing methods, while multinomial logistic regression was used to understand the factors associated with male spacing methods and sterilization. The results show a marked decline in the prevalence of male sterilization from 1992–93 (3.5%) to 2015–16 (0.3%) in India. Of the 640 districts, only 21 had a more than 2% prevalence of male sterilization. Scheduled tribe couples were two times more likely to use male sterilization than other (upper/no caste) groups. Couples from the northern region were significantly more likely to use male sterilization (aOR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.43–1.97) compared with those from the south. There was a regional disparity in male condom use, with a very small proportion of couples in the southern (1.1%), north-eastern (2.4%) and eastern (3.3%) regions using the method compared with couples from the northern region (9.7%). Couples from the northern (aOR: 8.89, 95% CI: 8.44–9.38), north-eastern (aOR: 11.37, 95% CI: 10.62–12.18), eastern (aOR: 6.96, 95% CI: 6.60–7.34), western (aOR: 4.65, 95% CI: 4.40–4.92) and central (aOR: 10.89, 95% CI: 10.35–11.46) regions were also significantly more likely to use male spacing methods than those from southern India. Therefore, a greater focus on increasing the use of male sterilization and condoms is required in India to reduce the gender disparity in the use of family planning methods.