Selective Discrimination against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India

Gupta, Mónica Das

doi:10.2307/1972121

Cited by 922 publications

(583 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The first of these variants assumes that at severe levels of household level food insecurity buffering is not a feasible strategy and food deprivation will be experienced by all household members, including children and adolescents. A second variant of the buffering hypothesis suggests that the relationship between household and youth food insecurity is attenuated in sociocultural contexts where there exists an asymmetry in perceptions of the relative value of male and female youth (Das Gupta, 1987), or where social privileges and movement are highly gendered. Gender often emerges as a key criterion used in intra-household food allocation decisions, and in some cases females receive an overall diet that is poorer in quality (Haddad, Hoddinott, & Alderman, 1997).…”

Section: Household Level Food Insecurity and Adult Buffering Of Adolementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Gittelsohn, Thapa, & Landman (1997), relying on observations of dietary intake, show that in Nepal women are systematically kept from consuming high status foods, which has consequences for indicators of micronutrient status. Das Gupta (1987) also provides some evidence from rural Punjab of discrimination towards girls in the household allocation of food. Some data from African settings suggest that adolescent girls' may receive preferential treatment prior to marriage and may be better prepared to face the demands of food insecurity because of their knowledge of coping strategies.…”

Section: Household Level Food Insecurity and Adult Buffering Of Adolementioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents

Hadley

Lindstrom

Tessema

et al. 2008

Social Science & Medicine

220

204

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Food insecurity is a pressing public health concern in many developing countries. Despite widespread interest in the sociocultural determinants of food insecurity, little is known about whether youths living in food insecure households experience food insecurity. The buffering hypothesis reviewed here assumes that, to the extent possible, adult members of households will buffer younger household members from the ill effects of food insecurity. A variant of the buffering hypothesis argues that only certain members of the households will enjoy the benefits of buffering. We hypothesize that within the context of Ethiopia, where girls have historically experienced discrimination, buffering is preferentially aimed at boys, especially as the household experiences greater levels of food stress. These hypotheses are tested using data from a population-based study of 2084 adolescents living in southwestern Ethiopia. Results indicate that boys and girls were equally likely to be living in severely food insecure households. Despite no differences in their households' food insecurity status, girls were more likely than boys to report being food insecure themselves. This gender difference was the largest in severely food insecure households. This same pattern was observed when comparing malefemale sibling pairs living in the same household. These results are among the first to show that household level measures of food insecurity predict adolescent experiences of food insecurity, and that in the Ethiopian socio-cultural context, the relationship between household level food insecurity and adolescent food insecurity varies by gender. We also show that adolescent food insecurity is strongly associated with measures of general health and well-being.

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Section: Household Level Food Insecurity and Adult Buffering Of Adolementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Household Level Food Insecurity and Adult Buffering Of Adolementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents

Hadley

Lindstrom

Tessema

et al. 2008

Social Science & Medicine

220

204

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“…By destroying, damaging, or straining health infrastructure, natural disasters might affect access to health care. Rosenzweig and Schultz 1982;Das Gupta 1987;Behrman 1988 (Murthi, Guio, and Dreze 1995;Mishra, Roy, and Retherford 2004;Rani, Bonu, and Harvey 2008). As a result, children in Southern states may be expected to fare somewhat better than their Northern counterparts in the aftermath of a disaster.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Child Health and Investments in Rural India

Datar¹,

Liu²,

Linnemayr³

et al. 2011

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Natural disasters are becoming more frequent worldwide and there is growing concern that they may adversely affect short-and long-term health outcomes in developing countries.Prior research has primarily focused on the impact of single, large disaster events but very little is known about how small to moderate disasters, which are more typical, affect population health.In this paper, we present one of the first investigations of the impact of small and moderate disasters on childhood morbidity, physical growth, and immunizations by combining household data from three waves of the Indian National Family and Health Survey with an international database of natural disasters (EM-DAT). We find that exposure to a natural disaster in the past month increases the likelihood of acute illnesses such as diarrhea, fever, and acute respiratory illness in children under 5 year by 9-18%. Exposure to a disaster in the past year reduces heightfor-age and weight-for-age z-scores by 0.12-0.15 standard deviations, increases the likelihood of stunting and underweight by 7%, and reduces the likelihood of having full age-appropriate immunization coverage by nearly 18%. We also find that disasters' effects vary significantly by gender, age, and socioeconomic characteristics. Most notably, the adverse effects on growth outcomes are much smaller among boys and infants.

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“…Although there is conflicting evidence of sex differences in nutritional outcomes in South Asia, it is often reported that child mortality is higher in females than in males due to antifemale discriminations in access to nutrition, education and health care (Das Gupta, 1987;Muhuri & Preston, 1991;Arnold et al, 1998). In South Asia, sons are preferred over daughters due to different economic, social and cultural factors (Mayer, 1999;Arnold et al, 2002;Mishra et al, 2004), which are operating differently in different population groups or culture areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excess male chronic energy deficiency among adolescents: a cross-sectional study in the context of patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Northeast India

Khongsdier

Varte

Mukherjee³

2005

Eur J Clin Nutr

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Objective: To determine the sex differences in chronic energy deficiency (CED) among adolescents in the context of patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Northeast India. Design: Cross-sectional, community-based study of the Hmar patrilineal society and the Khasi (War and Khynriam) matrilineal society. Setting: Mizoram and Meghalaya in Northeast India. Subjects: In total, 1733 adolescent boys and girls aged 9-16 y: Khynriam Khasis (n ¼ 1005), War Khasis (n ¼ 305) and Hmars (n ¼ 423). Measurements: Weight, height, and socio-economic characteristics. Body mass index (weight in kg/height in m 2 ) was used for assessing CED relative to the international reference values. Results: The overall prevalence of CED was significantly greater in boys than in girls. The sex differences in the prevalence of CED were 5, 10 and 6% points in the Khynriam Khasis, War Khasis and Hmars, respectively. Allowing for age and socio-economic variables, the risks of CED were about 1.82 (95% CI 1.14-2.90), 1.83 (95% CI 1.19-3.33) and 1.78 (95% CI 1.10-3.25) times greater in boys than in girls among the Khynriam Khasis, War Khasis and Hmars, respectively. Using logistic regression analysis, the prevalence of CED was negatively associated with family income across study populations. No significant association was found between CED and religion. Conclusion: Patrilineal and matrilineal forms of society were not reflected in the prevalence of CED among adolescents. Subject to further studies of the research problems concerning the nutritional status of adolescents, girls fare better than boys with respect to the prevalence of CED.

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Selective Discrimination against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India

Cited by 922 publications

References 18 publications

Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents

Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Child Health and Investments in Rural India

Excess male chronic energy deficiency among adolescents: a cross-sectional study in the context of patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Northeast India

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