Is There Any Relationship Between Gender Inequality and Nutrition? Experience From India

Abstract

Presently gender inequality and women's nutrition are the most concerning area of any development policy. Recent empirical evidence emphasizes that gender inequality decreases over time and the on the other hand percentage of overweight (OW) and obesity for women, especially in developing countries, increases over time. However, the relationship between these two phenomena (gender inequality and obesity) has rarely been investigated. Using time series yearly data (1990–2016) from the Nutrition Landscape Information Systems (NLiS) database of World Health Organisation (WHO) for India, we apply standard time series analysis including break test, stationarity test, cointegration test, and vector error correction model (VECM) to estimate the relationship between gender inequalities and percentage of females OW and obese. Our results show that there is a long-run relationship between these variables. Moreover, we also find that a decrease in gender inequality influences the increase in the number of females under OW and obese. In conclusion, the findings of this study reveal that, while elevating the position of women in society may be an important step toward combating the epidemic of OW and obesity, strategies must also tackle unhealthy habits that promote obesity.

Citation

Kasala, K., Roy, R.P. and Das, A. (2023), "Is There Any Relationship Between Gender Inequality and Nutrition? Experience From India", Chakraborty, C. and Pal, D. (Ed.) Gender Inequality and its Implications on Education and Health, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-180-620231004