Child Food Deficiency in India
Socio-demographic and Regional Patterns
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6417953 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Apoorva Nambiar (0000-0002-3243-1062), Dharma Arunachalam (0000-0003-2949-7199) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 2131-2156 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Child Indicators Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1874-8988 • E-ISSN: 1874-897X |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12187-025-10246-6 |
| OpenAlex | W4409647727 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
Childhood food deficiency, defined as children’s limited access to a diverse diet in early life, remains a critical issue in India. Using the latest Demographic and Health Survey of India— 2019–2021 National Family Health Survey data (NFHS-5), this paper provides new insights on socio-demographic and regional disparities in dietary diversity failure among children aged 6–23 months. The study employs multivariate analyses to evaluate the influence of key child and maternal characteristics, along with broader household and macro-level factors, on childhood food deficiency in India. Results show that two in five children faced severe food deficiency, consuming only one or two food groups, with most consuming breastmilk and dairy or grains. There were significant state-level variations for all eight food groups. Food deficiency was more widespread among children of mothers with no schooling, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious backgrounds and from poor households. Further analysis of interaction effects between urban-rural residence, wealth quintiles, and maternal education reveals that even among the wealthiest rural households, food deficiency remains high, underscoring persistent structural vulnerabilities. Maternal education emerges as a critical mitigating factor, with children of mothers with higher education experiencing significantly lower probabilities of food deficiency across all wealth quintiles. These findings emphasize the compounded role of economic and educational disparities in shaping child food security. The findings reinforce the need for context-specific planning and targeted interventions, and underscore the urgency of addressing childhood food deficiency in India
Early childhood education · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Geography · Pedagogy · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Medicine · Social Work
Chicken Politics
Household food insecurity and children's dietary diversity and nutrition in India. Evidence from the comprehensive nutrition survey in Maharashtra
Nutritional status of children in India
A comparison of the Indian diet with the EAT-Lancet reference diet
Socioeconomic inequalities in food insecurity and malnutrition among under-five children
Understanding the Change in the Prevalence and Factors Influencing the Childhood Stunting Using District-Level Data from NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 in India
Understanding the poor economic performance of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India
Food Preference, Poverty, and the Nutrition Gap
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |