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Patriarchy and Child Well-Being: Evidence from India
T M Tonmoy Islam, Morgan Kearns, Shabana Mitra ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This paper looks at how patriarchy in the household relates to the height of children in India. It uses data from the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey of India and a modified version of an existing patriarchy index. The main outcome is standardized height-for-age percentile, a measure linked to stunting. The authors report that patriarchy is linked to lower child height in northern India and among certain religious groups. They suggest that local culture and household religion together shape how patriarchy affects child height.
Key points
- About 32 percent of Indian children under 5 are stunted, compared with a world average of 22 percent (World Bank, as cited).
- The Sustainable Development Goals target eliminating stunting and wasting among children under 5 by 2030.
- The study uses 2019 Demographic and Health Survey data from India and a modified patriarchy index based on Singh et al (2022).
- Patriarchy negatively affects child height in the northern parts of India and among certain religious groups.
- The authors theorize that culture of the land together with household religion shapes how patriarchy affects child height.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so the methods, effect sizes, and which religious groups are affected are not described. The study appears to be observational and the abstract does not say how well it can show cause and effect.
Abstract
Abstract The nutrition and care received in childhood can have a profound impact on the adult life of an individual. Governments and the United Nations have emphasized proper care and nutrition for children, and the Sustainable Development Goals have targeted the elimination of stunting and wasting of children under the age of 5 by 2030. However, South Asia is lagging behind in this metric; the World Bank has noted that about 32 percent of Indian children under age of 5 is stunted, while the world average is 22 percent. While a number of studies have looked into ways of improving well-being of a child, and women’s empowerment, the relationship between patriarchy and children well-being has not been extensively studied. In this paper, we use data from the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey of India to study this relationship. We modify the patriarchy index outlined in Singh et al (2022) and use it in our paper. Our primary dependent variable is the standardized height-for-age percentile. We find that patriarchy negatively affects child height in the northern parts of India, and among certain religious groups. We theorize that culture of the land together with religion of the household impacts how patriarchy affects child height.