Caste disparities key reason for India having higher child stunting than sub-Saharan Africa: Study
The researchers argued that caste must be explicitly accounted for in policies meant to address the problem of child stunting in India.
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Caste disparities are an important factor behind India having higher rates of stunting among children than sub-Saharan Africa despite the country being relatively richer, a study published on October 26 in the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy has found.
The study, authored by economists Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran, found that children from historically marginalised communities such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were 50% more likely to be stunted than those from upper castes.
The rate of stunting in children from upper caste groups was found to be 27%, which is significantly lower than sub-Saharan Africa’s 34% and India’s 36% overall.
Child stunting refers to the phenomenon of a child being too short for their age. and is the result of chronic or recurrent malnutrition.
Deshpande is the head of the economics department at Haryana’s Ashoka University while Ramachandran is a senior lecturer at Monash University Malaysia. Their study argues that caste needs to be explicitly accounted for in any policy that seeks to address the high rates of stunting in India.
The prevalence of stunting in India in 2022 was 31.7%, as against 31.3% for sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates published by the United Nations Children's Fund, World Health Organization and World Bank.
This was despite the fact that...
