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Climate vulnerability and household nutrition in India

2015-2016). Further, tracking the global nutritional targets, as mentioned in the World Health Assembly, it is estimated
that the pace of improvement in nutrition indicators is languid in India. Odisha must travel miles to reach to the WHA
global nutritional targets set so far for 2025. Considering NFHS-4, 2015-2016 has been considered the base year for the
study. It is found that of six global nutrition targets, India and Odisha can manage to achieve only four in the prescribed
timeline of 2025. These four indicators are stunting, wasting, and anemia among women in the reproductive age group
and exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months.
2. Data and Methods

2.1. Data sources
In this study, data have been collected from various secondary sources such as the Census of India 2011, Annual Health
Survey-III, 2012-2013, Economic Survey-2013-2014, Agriculture Statistics, India Meteorological Department Data,
Annual Year Book of Odisha Ground Water, and other published sources. All the collected data have been used for
assessing the district-wise climate vulnerability of Odisha. More importantly, the study makes use of these datasets
to construct the district level climate vulnerability status based on three parameters (i) sensitivity, (ii) exposure, and
(iii) adaptive capacity on vulnerability to affect the agriculture production. These indicators are broadly “biophysical”
or “socioeconomic” in nature. In the present analysis, we have identified 13 indicators pertaining to biophysical,
socioeconomic, and demographic factors. Five indicators were chosen under the biophysical category, whereas eight
indicators were identified under the socioeconomic category for calculations to estimate the vulnerability. The rationality
of selection of the indicators is drawn from their inter-relationship available sources in reference to the years and weights
allotted, which is presented in Table 1.
2.2. Measurements and Methods

2.2.1. Household nutrition indicators
The fourth round of NFHS (2015-2016) published data is used for deriving the household nutrition status. Until date,
the NFHS has been conducted four times in India. The first survey refers to the year 1992-1993 followed by a second
in 1998-1999, third in 2005-2006, and the latest in the year 2015-2016. This survey is a storehouse of data for several
health indicators, namely, fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, maternal and child health,
reproductive health, nutrition, anemia, utilization, and quality of health and family planning services on national and
states level separately. The NFHS is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households
throughout India. The survey is modeled in the line of “Demographic and Health Survey” conducted in many countries
around the world. For understanding the household nutrition status in the study, three nutrition indicators have been used,
i.e., two from child nutrition and one from women nutrition category. Weight-for-height (Wasting) children (0-5 years)
and anemia children (6-59 months) from child nutrition category and anemia – women (15-49 years) are from women
nutrition category. For child nutrition, wasting or weight-for-height is defined as an index for the measurement of body
mass in relation to body height that describes current nutrition status. It provides an estimate for acute undernutrition and
represents the failure to receive adequate nutrition in the period immediately preceding the survey and maybe the result
of inadequate food intake or a recent episode of illness-causing loss of weight and the onset of malnutrition. Anemia is a
condition that is marked by low levels (<11.0 for children 6-59 months and pregnant women age 15-49 years and <12.0
for non-pregnant women age 15-49 years) of hemoglobin content in the blood. Iron is a crucial component of hemoglobin
and iron deficiency is estimated to be responsible for half of all anemia globally. Anemia is a severe concern for children
because it can impair cognitive development, resulting in stunted growth, and increase morbidity from infectious diseases.
2.2.2. Normalization of vulnerable indicators

To comprehend climate vulnerability and its impact on household nutrition status, it is essential to develop an indicator
that is quantifiable, comprehensive, and can establish the relationship. Toward this attempt, the study estimates the
climate vulnerability using “Composite Index” method, factoring in information from various secondary sources. The
composite index is computed based on the dimensional relationship of the indicators with climate vulnerability and
agriculture production system. Before estimating the composite index, we have normalized each indicator to reduce its
variability as different indicators have different measurement units. For example, the per capita income is defined in terms

44 International Journal of Population Studies | 2020, Volume 6, Issue 1