Gendered time-use patterns and effects on nutritional status of women and children in the semi-arid tropics: micro-level evidence from selected villages of India

Abstract

There is an increasing focus on studying and understanding the linkages between agriculture and human nutrition in order to identify nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions. Literature identifies several pathways linking agriculture and nutrition and some of these pathways specifically address women’s time use and nutrition in agriculture. Alongside these, a number of studies propose that increasing women’s engagement and involvement in agriculture and allied activities contribute to women’s own malnutrition (under or over nutrition) and child under-nutrition in a number of ways like less time to care for themselves and participate in the care economy of the household, improper infant and child feeding practices, cooking and providing water, health services to the households and energy expenditure due to long hours of working. However, there is limited empirical evidence to test as well as corroborate these linkages and this could be due to lack of micro-level data on nutritional status of women and children, women’s time use in agriculture and domestic work. Such evidence assumes greater significance in the harsh, vulnerable environments such as the semi-arid tropics of India and Africa which are facing acute water shortage, continuous drought as well as a policy bias towards rain fed agriculture, and a prevalence of rigid gender, social and cultural norms dictating women