IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ash/wpaper/97.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stunting and Social Identity: Revisiting the India - Africa Comparison

Author

Listed:
  • Ashwini Deshpande

    (Ashoka University)

  • Rajesh Ramachandran

    (Monash University)

Abstract

The “Indian Enigma†refers to the higher rates of childhood stunting in relatively richer India compared to Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). However, existing explanations have ignored the role of social identity in both regions. While the average rates of stunting of under-five children in India and SSA are 35.7% and 33.6%, respectively, there are sharp disparities by social identities with varying socio-economic circumstances. In India, 27% of dominant upper caste Hindu children are stunted compared to 40% of children from the most marginalized groups, the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). In SSA, Christians and Muslims have similar and lower stunting rates compared to all other religious groups. Furthermore, stunting rates are not higher among the groups in SSA that are politically excluded than among those who are not. Finally, accounting for factors identified as explaining the India-SSA height gradient - birth-order, mother height, open defecation, and sibling size - taken together can explain one-third of the differences among the caste groups in India. Our findings suggest that incorporating considerations of social identity is essential to understanding the problem of stunting in India and SSA.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2023. "Stunting and Social Identity: Revisiting the India - Africa Comparison," Working Papers 97, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:97
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper97_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Alesina & Sebastian Hohmann & Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2023. "Religion and educational mobility in Africa," Nature, Nature, vol. 618(7963), pages 134-143, June.
    2. Seema Jayachandran & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2600-2629, September.
    3. von Grafenstein, Liza & Klasen, Stephan & Hoddinott, John, 2023. "The Indian Enigma revisited," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    4. Panin, Amma, 2021. "Four reasons why analysis of economic policy and religion go hand-in-hand in sub-Saharan Africa," PEGNet Policy Briefs 23/2020, PEGNet - Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chandna, Arjita & Bhagowalia, Priya, 2024. "Birth order and children’s health and learning outcomes in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Heath Milsom, Luke, 2023. "Spatial inequality of opportunity in West Africa," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    3. Schneider, Eric B., 2023. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: a long-run, global review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Aiyar, Anaka & Cummins, Joseph R., 2021. "An age profile perspective on two puzzles in global child health: The Indian Enigma & economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Nandi, Arindam & Sahoo, Soham & Haberland, Nicole & Ngô, Thoại D., 2023. "A glass ceiling at the playhouse? Gender gaps in public and private preschool enrollment in India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Michele Giannola, 2024. "Parental Investments and Intra-household Inequality in Child Human Capital: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(658), pages 671-727.
    7. Kalra, Aarushi, 2021. "A 'Ghetto' of One's Own: Communal Violence, Residential Segregation and Group Education Outcomes in India," SocArXiv rzjct, Center for Open Science.
    8. Asiedu, Elizabeth & Azomahou, Théophile T. & Getachew, Yoseph & Yitbarek, Eleni, 2021. "Share the love: Parental bias, women empowerment and intergenerational mobility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 846-867.
    9. Elsa GAUTRAIN & Hugues CHAMPEAUX & Karine MARAZYAN, 2024. "Men's premarital migration and marriage payments: Evidence from Indonesia," FSES Working Papers 534, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    10. Öberg, Stefan, 2018. "Instrumental variables based on twin births are by definition not valid (v.3.0)," SocArXiv zux9s, Center for Open Science.
    11. Huang, Zibin & Jiang, Xu & Sun, Ang, 2024. "Fertility and delayed migration: How son preference protects young girls against mother–child separation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    12. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry & Maha Khan & Azka Sarosh Mir, 2021. "Son‐biased fertility stopping, birth spacing, and child nutritional status in Pakistan," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 712-736, May.
    13. Nayana Bose & Shreyasee Das, 2021. "Intergenerational effects of improving women’s property rights: evidence from India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 277-290, July.
    14. Rodriguez-Segura, Daniel & Campton, Cole & Crouch, Luis & Slade, Timothy S., 2021. "Looking beyond changes in averages in evaluating foundational learning: Some inequality measures," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. Ella Sargsyan, 2022. "Violent Conflicts and Child Gender Preferences of Parents: Evidence from Nigeria," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp723, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    16. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Heather Congdon Fors & Annika Lindskog, 2023. "Within‐family inequalities in human capital accumulation in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 3-28, February.
    18. Lucio Esposito & Sunil Mitra Kumar & Adrián Villaseñor, 2020. "The importance of being earliest: birth order and educational outcomes along the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 1069-1099, July.
    19. Beltramo, Theresa P. & Calvi, Rossella & De Giorgi, Giacomo & Sarr, Ibrahima, 2023. "Child poverty among refugees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    20. Leena Mary Eapen, 2020. "Son Preference in India: Is it a Cultural Bequest?," Working papers 373, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    India;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:97. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ashoka University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ashoka.edu.in .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.