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Social Infrastructure and Women’s Undernutrition
Authors: Sunny Jose , K Navaneetham
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 45 No. 13 March 27 - April 02, 2010
Topic(s): Nutrition
Women's health
Country: Asia
  India
Published: APR 2010
Abstract: We examine whether access to aspects of social infrastructure, such as toilet facilities, drinking water on the premises and clean cooking fuels, leads to a decline in the incidence of undernutrition among women, which remains quite high in India. The analysis, based on the National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-06) unit-level data, suggests that access to these three aspects of social infrastructure is likely to enhance women’s nutrition in India. Of these three aspects, the influence of access to clean cooking fuels remains quite significant. The findings, which assume importance from multiple angles, underline the importance of policies and programmes that ensure access to social infrastructure to the poor, in general, and poor women, in particular.