Burden of Child Malnutrition in India: A View from Parliamentary Constituencies

Economic & Political Weekly, vol. lIV, no. 2 (2019)

13 Pages Posted: 24 Jun 2019

See all articles by Akshay Swaminathan

Akshay Swaminathan

Stanford University - School of Medicine

Rockli Kim

Harvard University - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Yun Xu

Harvard College

Jeffrey C. Blossom

Harvard University

William Joe

University of Delhi - Institute of Economic Growth (IEG)

R Venkatraman

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Alok Kumar

NITI Aayog, Government of India

S. V. Subramanian

Harvard University - Department of Global Health and Social Medicine

Date Written: January 12, 2019

Abstract

In India, monitoring and surveillance of health and well-being indicators have been focused primarily on the state and district levels. Analysing population data at the level of parliamentary constituencies has the potential to bring political accountability to the data-driven policy discourse that is currently based on district-level estimates. Using data from the fourth National Family Health Survey 2016, two geographic information systems methodologies have been developed and applied to provide estimates of four child malnutrition indicators (stunting, underweight, wasting, and anemia) for the 543 parliamentary constituencies in India. The results indicate that several constituencies experience a multiple burden of child malnutrition that must be addressed concurrently and as a priority.

Keywords: Malnutrition, Stunting, India, Data driven Policy, GIS estimates

JEL Classification: I150, Y1

Suggested Citation

Swaminathan, Akshay and Kim, Rockli and Xu, Yun and Blossom, Jeffrey C. and Joe, William and Venkatraman, R and Kumar, Alok and Subramanian, S. V., Burden of Child Malnutrition in India: A View from Parliamentary Constituencies (January 12, 2019). Economic & Political Weekly, vol. lIV, no. 2 (2019) , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3397053

Akshay Swaminathan

Stanford University - School of Medicine

Rockli Kim

Harvard University - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences ( email )

677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
United States

Yun Xu

Harvard College ( email )

Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jeffrey C. Blossom

Harvard University ( email )

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

William Joe

University of Delhi - Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) ( email )

Delhi, 110007
India

R Venkatraman

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Alok Kumar (Contact Author)

NITI Aayog, Government of India ( email )

204 NITI Bhawan
Parliament Street
New Delhi, Uttarakhand 110001
India
+91-11-23096613 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://niti.gov.in

S. V. Subramanian

Harvard University - Department of Global Health and Social Medicine ( email )

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