Diets, Nutrition, and Poverty - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 338

deprivation. These workers are unable to save very much so their assets—both physical
and human—are minimal. This outcome reduces their chances of escaping the poverty-
nutrition trap (PNT).34
Our analysis is based on a nation-wide household survey conducted by the National
Council of Applied Economic Research in 1994.35 We test for the existence of a PNT in
the case of calories and four key micronutrients—carotene, iron, riboflavin, and thia-
mine—for three categories of wages (sowing, harvesting, and other) and for male and
female workers separately.
PNT exists in one-third (i.e., 10) of the 30 cases analyzed. It exists for female harvest
wage and female sowing wage for calories. In the case of carotene, male workers engaged
in harvesting are subject to the PNT, whereas both male and female workers engaged in
harvesting are subject to PNT in the case of iron. In the case of riboflavin female workers
engaged in harvesting and sowing and male workers engaged in harvesting are subject
to PNT. In the case of thiamine, female workers engaged in harvesting and sowing are
subject to PNT. Since harvesting is physically more demanding than sowing, there is a
higher incidence of PNT in harvesting.
This analysis shifts the focus to nutritional adequacy as a precondition for participa-
tion in labor market activities. Even if some succeed in participating, their wage earn-
ings will not allow them to escape the poverty-nutrition trap. Indeed, a mild labor shock
(e.g., associated with a crop shortfall) would worsen their plight, because the risk of loss
of employment would be considerably higher. In particular, female workers are more
prone to PNT than male workers, and there is a persistent gender inequality in rural
India. We find that improving nutrient intakes can have significant effects on rural
wages and, therefore, on the possibility of breaking PNT as well as reducing poverty.
Is Child Undernutrition
Underestimated?
Since poverty is multidimensional, money-metric indicators such as minimum income
or expenditure are not reliable, as these cannot adequately capture all the dimensions.
Attention has, therefore, shifted to other indicators that are more closely related to basic
capabilities of individuals, such as health outcomes. In fact, welfare indicators including
income/expenditure, health, and education reflect a diverse pattern in India. Although
most indicators have continued to improve, social progress has followed diverse pat-
terns, ranging from accelerated progress in some fields to slowdown and even regres-
sion in others (Sen, 1985, 1999; Deaton and Dreze, 2009).
The most commonly used anthropometric measures of child malnutrition are
stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height) and underweight (low
weight for age). Stunting is an indicator of chronic undernutrition, attributable to
prolonged food deprivation, and/or disease or illness; wasting is an indicator of acute