Sex Differentials in Childhood Feeding, Health Care, and Nutritional Status in India

TLDR: Examination of indicators of childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status of children under age 3 by birth order and sex composition of older living siblings in India finds that gender discrimination is as common in the South as in the North, where son preference is generally much stronger.

Abstract: A recent review of 306 child nutrition surveys from developing countries concluded that evidence on sex differentials in undernutrition does not support the notion that antifemale bias in intrahousehold food allocation and health care is causing excess female undernutrition. As Marcoux noted “the statistical evidence tells us that where detectable differences by sex exist boys usually fare worse than girls by anthropometric indicators.” Sommerfelt and Arnold (1998) reached a similar conclusion after reviewing evidence on sex differentials in stunting underweight and wasting from 41 Demographic and Health Surveys. Sommerfelt and Piani (1997) examined sex differences in immunization coverage in 28 countries that participated in Demographic and Health Surveys during 1990–94 and found a “slight tendency for vaccination coverage to be somewhat higher among girls than among boys.” A detailed review of literature on intrahousehold distribution of food found little evidence of discrimination against girls in feeding. Basu drawing on field data from India and a review of literature on household allocation of food in South Asia where antifemale discrimination is believed to be widespread found little evidence of discrimination against girls. Analyzing data from a national survey in India Mishra et al. (1999) found that boys and girls were about equally likely to be stunted and underweight but boys were slightly more likely than girls to be wasted. Schoenbaum et al. (1995) also found no consistent evidence of differences by sex in feeding or nutritional status among children aged 0–18 months in the Gaza Strip. (excerpt)

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Table 4 Effects (M/F odds ratios) of sex of index child on selected indicators of childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status by child's birth order and mother's number of living sons, four northern and four southern states of India: NFHS-1(1992-93) and NFHS-2 (1998-99) pooled sample

Table 2 Sex differentials in selected indicators of childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status for four northern states, four southern states, and all India: NFHS-1(1992-93) and NFHS-2 (1998-99)

Table 1 Sample distribution of children under age 3 by birth order and sex composition of previous living children, and by selected background characteristics, India: NFHS-1 (1992-93) and NFHS-2 (1998-99)

Table 3 Effects (M/F odds ratios) of sex of index child on selected indicators of childhood feeding, health care, and nutritional status by child's birth order and mother's number of living sons, India: NFHS-1(1992-93) and NFHS-2 (1998-99)