Who eats last? Intra-household gender inequality in food allocation among children in educationally backward areas of India

The practice of women eating after men is a common gender-inequitable food allocation mechanism among adults in Indian households and has been associated with poor health and nutritional outcomes for women. However, empirical evidence on whether a similar practice of girls eating after boys is prevalent among children is scarce. Using primary data from a household survey conducted in educationally backward areas of four Indian states, we provide new evidence of this practice among children. Almost 28 per cent of the sample households follow the mealtime custom of girls eating after boys. Scheduled Tribes and households with higher incomes are less likely to follow this practice. Other relevant factors include children's relative ages by sex and an interplay between family size and children's sex composition. While our findings may not be generalizable, they suggest an intersectionality between gender and other dimensions of inequality, namely social identity and economic class.

Food supply and provisioning behavior of parents: Are small hoopoe nestlings condemned to die?

Parents might use signals of need or of quality to decide food provisioning among their offspring, while the use of one or another signal might depend on food availability. Begging success of nestlings of different quality (i.e., body size) would also depend on food availability, and we here explore the effect of experimental food supply in begging success of nestlings and in provisioning of female hoopoes (Upupa epops), a species with extreme hatching asynchrony and nestlings size hierarchy. We video-recorded food allocation of females, begging success of nestlings of different size, and the social context (i.e., the size category of the other nestlings that were begging for food) during periods when experimental food supply was or was not available in the same nests. We found that when experimental food supplementation was present, begging success of the intermediate, but not that of large or small-sized nestlings, increased. The experiment, however, did not affect the feeding preferences of females toward nestlings of different size. Moreover, when small nestlings were the only ones that were begging for food, their begging success decreased in the experimental period, and females used supplemented prey to feed themselves. Those results, on one hand, confirm the importance of food availability for the begging success of nestlings of particular sizes and, on the other, indicate that females prefer to use extra food for their own rather than for the smallest nestlings. We discuss possible mechanisms explaining the detected experimental effects and the adaptive and nonadaptive explanations of mothers ignoring the small nestlings.

Participatory Women's Groups with Cash Transfers Can Increase Dietary Diversity and Micronutrient Adequacy during Pregnancy, whereas Women's Groups with Food Transfers Can Increase Equity in Intrahousehold Energy Allocation

Background

There is scarce evidence on the impacts of food transfers, cash transfers, or women's groups on food sharing, dietary intakes, or nutrition during pregnancy, when nutritional needs are elevated.

Objective

This study measured the effects of 3 pregnancy-focused nutrition interventions on intrahousehold food allocation, dietary adequacy, and maternal nutritional status in Nepal.

Methods

Interventions tested in a cluster-randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN 75964374) were "Participatory Learning and Action" (PLA) monthly women's groups, PLA with transfers of 10 kg fortified flour ("Super Cereal"), and PLA plus transfers of 750 Nepalese rupees (∼US$7.5) to pregnant women. Control clusters received usual government services. Primary outcomes were Relative Dietary Energy Adequacy Ratios (RDEARs) between pregnant women and male household heads and pregnant women and their mothers-in-law. Diets were measured by repeated 24-h dietary recalls.

Results

Relative to control, RDEARs between pregnant women and their mothers-in-law were 12% higher in the PLA plus food arm (log-RDEAR coefficient = 0.12; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.21; P = 0.014), but 10% lower in the PLA-only arm between pregnant women and male household heads (-0.11; 95% CI: -0.19, -0.02; P = 0.020). In all interventions, pregnant women's energy intakes did not improve, but odds of pregnant women consuming iron-folate supplements were 2.5-4.6 times higher, odds of pregnant women consuming more animal-source foods than the household head were 1.7-2.4 times higher, and midupper arm circumference was higher relative to control. Dietary diversity was 0.4 food groups higher in the PLA plus cash arm than in the control arm.

Conclusions

All interventions improved maternal diets and nutritional status in pregnancy. PLA women's groups with food transfers increased equity in energy allocation, whereas PLA with cash improved dietary diversity. PLA alone improved diets, but effects were mixed. Scale-up of these interventions in marginalized populations is a policy option, but researchers should find ways to increase adherence to interventions. This trial was registered at www.controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN 75964374.