Peer-reviewed article
Women’s Empowerment and Child Stunting in India: An Investigation
Rishi Kumar, Supriya Lakhtakia ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined the relationship between women's empowerment and child stunting in India using national health survey data. The researchers analyzed stunting patterns across different socioeconomic groups and tested associations between various dimensions of women's empowerment and stunting outcomes. The findings show that women's financial autonomy is associated with reduced odds of child stunting, along with maternal health factors like body mass index and antenatal care visits. The authors conclude that women's empowerment can play an important role in improving child nutrition.
Key points
- Financial autonomy of women is associated with reduction in odds of child stunting
- Maternal body mass index is an associated factor in reducing child stunting
- Number of antenatal visits during pregnancy is associated with lower stunting odds
- Study used National Family and Health Survey data from India
- Chi-square tests and logistic regression modeling were used to identify associations
Limitations
This is an observational study examining associations rather than causal relationships, so it cannot determine whether women's empowerment directly causes reduced stunting or whether other unmeasured factors explain both outcomes. The study does not evaluate the effectiveness of a specific intervention to increase women's empowerment.
Abstract
Child stunting is associated with substantial impediments to human development and loss in human capital. An important factor contributing to the prevalence of stunting, a manifestation of malnutrition among children, is believed to be women’s lack of empowerment. This paper, therefore, aims to describe the trends and variations in child stunting in India using data from the National Family and Health Survey. This study also seeks to find the factors associated with child stunting, with particular focus on the influence of women’s empowerment. We analyzed stunting across various socioeconomic groups, and applied chi-square tests and logistic regression modeling to determine whether any significant association existed between the different dimensions of women’s empowerment and child stunting. We found that the financial autonomy of women is one of the factors which is associated with a reduction in the odds of being a child stunted. Other reasons that decrease the odds of child stunting are maternal health, measured by body mass index, and the number of antenatal visits during pregnancy. Women’s empowerment can, therefore, play an essential role in improving child nutrition.