Addressing Nutrient Inadequacy of Women in Odisha

There are only handful of studies on Odisha, which tries to analyse nutrient intake from the point of view of gender. (Nithya and Bhavani, J Biosoc Sci 50:397–413, 2018) study the difference in mean adequacy ratio (MAR) and nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) for various nutrients between adult men and adult women but it is not clear from their study whether the difference is significant or not. This paper does an in-depth analysis of the intake of nutrients with respect to gender using the data collected through a sample survey in Odisha. We specifically examine the way in which MAR and NAR with respect to gender may vary if we control for socio-economic and other important factors associated with nutrient intake. Additionally, this study tries to understand the ways in which food production-consumption and women empowerment pathway of NSA can help to address the inadequacy of nutrient intake in Odisha specifically among women. Men in the sample were found to be having significantly higher level of MAR and NAR in calories, protein, iron, zinc, folate, and riboflavin. As a result, any policy to increase nutrient intake among the population of Odisha has to be adequately gender sensitive by taking into account the gender differences within household. Agriculture in this region is predominantly subsistence oriented, and the self-consumption of crops produced on the farm is very common. In the case of paddy, it is around 45%, and for pulses it is above 95%. The self-consumption of gross production of edible oil and vegetables (and fruits) is also above 40% and above 85%, respectively. If there is a high self-consumption among households, it can be safely assumed that the increase in crop diversity will at least partially convert into dietary diversity and nutritional adequacy. Poverty also prevents most of the households to consume the vegetables, fruits, legumes, and pulses grown by them. Hence. food production/self-consumption NSA pathways seemed to be appropriate to improve the nutrient intake of people but they need to be mediated through certain socio-economic (especially gender sensitive) and nutrition-specific measures to address various challenges. The convergence between departments at the grassroots level may also enhance the impact of NSA.