Malnutrition in South-Asia: Poverty, Diet or Lack of Female Empowerment?

Despite economic growth, and a reduction in poverty, malnutrition is still rampant in South-Asia. This indicates that non-economic factors are important, and it used a nation-wide survey from Nepal to identify factors that may explain why small children are stunted. In contrast to designated studies of child nutrition the authors do not have information on individual food intake, but they demonstrated that analysis of large sample surveys is a good supplement to designated studies, with the main benefit being that findings are nationally representative. It found that pulses are critical for child growth, and that boys are more often malnourished, maybe because they are expected to take other food than breast milk. Furthermore the study also finds that girls are more likely malnourished if they have many older brothers, and it has also found that female empowerment improves child nutrition.