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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• intra-household inequality
• food allocation
• children
• gender
• caste
• intersectionality
• India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Dipanwita Ghatak is based at the University of Essex, UK. Soham Sahoo is based at the Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India, and also affiliated with the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Sudipa Sarkar is based at the National Law School of India University, India, and also affiliated with the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, UK. Varun Sharma is based at Child Rights and You (CRY), India.

2 Please direct all correspondence to Soham Sahoo, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore—560076, India; or by E-mail: [email protected].

3 Acknowledgements: We thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers of this journal for very constructive comments that have helped us to improve the paper. The paper also benefited from the comments of the participants of the Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2022. We acknowledge research support received from the Economic and Social Research Council through a Global Challenges Research Fund (ref. no. ES/T010606/1). We acknowledge the support of DevInsights Pvt. Ltd. as a research partner for the larger study by Child Rights and You (CRY) titled, ‘Educating the Girl Child: Role of incentivisation and other enablers and disablers’. Prior ethical approval was obtained by CRY from Sigma Institutional Review Board Committee, New Delhi (IRB No. 10027/IRB/D/17–18). Informed consent was formally obtained in approved format from the respondents during data collection.