Page 130 - IJPS-10-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Child malnutrition in rural India

crop diversification. In model 2, children of the second Examining the linkage of socioeconomic characteristics,
birth order (p < 0.01) and belonging to the scheduled caste demographic characteristics and crop diversification with
category were less likely to be underweight (p < 0.5), while child malnutrition is currently the focus of study in this
children of older mothers (p < 0.01) and residing in semi- field because relevant studies at the macro (national) and
pucca house (p < 0.05) were more likely to be underweight. micro (state) levels are scarce. The association between

Crop diversification did not exhibit significant crop diversification and child malnutrition is a contentious
relationship with child stunting, but model 4 shows that topic as it is often considered as a complex issue. Therefore,
children of the second birth order (p < 0.01) and belonging microlevel analysis in this respect would provide an insight
to scheduled caste category were less likely to be stunted that could inform policies intended to curb this problem.
(p < 0.5). It was also found that households having more This study demonstrated that children of higher birth
than 1 hectare of farm land were less likely to be stunted order were less likely to be underweight and stunted,
(p < 0.05), while children of older mothers (p < 0.01) were probably because mothers who already had older children
found to be significantly stunted. know how to take care of the infant and about the correct
feeding practices she had learned from the previous child
Model 5 shows significant result of crop diversification
with stunting, but, in model 6, it did not find the significant caring experiences (Khan & Raza, 2014; Sarkar, 2016;
Talapalliwar & Garg, 2014). Moreover, children of older
association after controlling the socioeconomic and mothers were more likely to be underweight and stunted;
demographic characteristics. Based on model 6, the children a justifiable explanation for this is that older mothers who
of mothers having completed secondary education and
above were less likely to be stunted compared with those of might have children when they were younger are more
mothers who had achieved education below the secondary likely to neglect her health and, thus, become negligent
level (p < 0.05), suggesting that maternal education is an of their newborns’ health (Kumar & Singh, 2013; Mandal
important factor in influencing the nutritional status of the et al., 2014; Imai et al., 2014; Som et al., 2007; Islam et al.,
1994; Ao & Lhungdim, 2014).
child. The analysis also revealed that children residing in
semi-pucca house were more likely to be stunted compared Social category is often considered an important
to those residing in kuccha house (p < 0.01). determinant of child malnutrition as children belonging to
scheduled caste category are considered more disadvantaged
4. Discussion and have higher prevalence of malnutrition (Sarkar, 2016),

The present study corroborates previous reports that Jhargram whereas this notion was refuted based on our findings,
district, West Bengal is facing a high prevalence of underweight, which showed that children belonging to the scheduled caste
wasting, and stunting among children and found that the crop category were less likely to be malnourished. On the other
diversification in the study area was of low level. hand, children living in semi-pucca houses were associated
with higher prevalence of underweight and wasting.
The analysis of cropping pattern and crop diversification
in the study region revealed that the predominant crop In our study, ownership of farm land is regarded as a
produced in the study region is paddy (mainly aman), ‘proxy of wealth index’ among the rural households. It was
which is similar to the cropping practice in the state (West found that children belonging to families owning more
Bengal) as indicated from the paddy outlook report of than 1 ha of farm land were less likely to be malnourished,
2021. The report revealed that West Bengal cultivated probably because these households were more capable of
2.52 lakh hectares of paddy and remained as the top providing sufficient, diverse types of food throughout the
producer of paddy. Other high-value crops were cultivated year as more farm lands could be used for the cultivation
on a very small scale, and in most cases, traditional of various crops.
cropping equipment was adopted. It has been revealed The association between crop diversification and
that the favorable condition for intensive cultivation of malnutrition was also confirmed in the present study. This
Aman paddy had garnered interest of the inhabitants, is exemplified by the lower probability of underweight and
which directly or indirectly affected the crop diversity in wasting among children from the households practicing
the area. In the case of cropping intensity, the results from moderate crop diversification, as compared with those
this study (183%) were found to be pertinent with other from the households practicing low crop diversification.
studies conducted in West Bengal (Deshmukh and Tanaji, Similarly, a past study has found that production of various
2017), where the cropping intensity was found to be 186% crop positively impacts nutrition and health (Frison
in 2012 – 13. The crop diversification in West Bengal had et al., 2006), which is also associated with an increase
been increasing persistently, though not at a faster rate in household food consumption (Mango et al., 2018).
since 1970 (De & Chattopadhyay, 2010; Bisai et al., 2016). The present study identified that crop diversification is a

Volume 10 Issue 2 (2024) 124 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0324