Peer-reviewed article
Malnutrition and female political representation in India.
Parul Tyagi, Philippe LeMay-Boucher ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines the relationship between women's political representation in India's state legislatures and child malnutrition outcomes. Using household survey data from 2002-2004 linked with electoral data from 1993-2004, the researchers found that increased female representation in elected bodies is associated with reduced child underweight rates. The study suggests that greater women's political agency improves children's nutrition through better access to basic amenities and maternal healthcare services.
Key points
- A ten-percentage point increase in women's political representation leads to a 3-5 percentage point reduction in child underweight likelihood
- Greater female political representation improves household access to basic amenities
- Women's representation enhances access to prenatal, birth and postnatal care for mothers
- India has among the highest rates of child wasting and stunting despite two decades of growth
- The study links underrepresentation of women in politics to inadequate commitment to addressing child malnutrition
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional observational study that cannot establish causation, only association. The study does not explain the specific mechanisms through which female representation affects nutrition outcomes, nor does it account for other confounding factors that might influence both political representation and child health outcomes.
Abstract
Malnutrition casts a negative shadow over the course of the lives of a fifth of children under the age of five who are stunted worldwide. Despite two decades of growth, India has one of the highest wasting and stunting rates. Lack of political awareness and poor governance, arguably related to an acute underrepresentation of women in politics in India may explain why not enough is committed to this matter. Increasing women's political agency in elected bodies has brought several documented benefits yet little is known about its impact on children's nutrition outcomes. Our analysis shows that increasing women's political representation in India's state legislatures could reduce child malnutrition. We use a large cross-sectional district representative household survey collected between 2002-4 through the second round of the District Level Household Survey. It is merged with detailed state legislative assembly election data we collected. These detail who contested seats in each constituency and the gender composition of elected representatives in India's 17 largest states between 1993 and 2004. We find that a ten-percentage point increase in women's representation leads to a three to five percentage point reduction in the likelihood of a child being underweight. Malnutrition is a multi-faceted issue with different underlying causes, and our work explores some of these. We document that greater female political representation creates productive ways to enhance public health by bringing improvements in households' access to basic amenities and to prenatal, birth and postnatal care among mothers.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Increasing women's political representation in state legislatures
- Population
- Children under five in districts across India's 17 largest states
Key finding
Ten-percentage point increase in women's political representation associated with 3-5 percentage point reduction in likelihood of child being underweight