Long-Term Trends in Cross-State Disparities in Child Growth in India: Is There Convergence?

Pravat Bhandari, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Suryakant Yadav, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The persistent regional disparities in child growth in India is considered to be a major challenge in achieving the national nutritional goals. The explicit quantification of the long-term changes in regional nutritional indicators offers insights into the course of regional differences, but the empirical analyses in this direction are scarce and limited. We assessed the trends in regional differences in child growth across the states of India by applying the economic models of beta and sigma convergence. The analysis was carried out taking height-for-age z-score and weight-for-age z-score as childhood growth indicators. The results revealed a statistically significant beta convergence combined with a statistically significant sigma convergence in children’s height. The states with the lowest height in 1998-99 displayed the maximum gain over the period 1998-99—2019-21, and vice versa. For children’s weight, the Indian states showed only a limited tendency towards convergence. The study concludes that the simultaneous presence of beta and sigma convergence in children’s height is primarily driven by catching-up of socioeconomically disadvantaged states, resulting a significant decline in height differences between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged states. In contrast, the absence of convergence in children’s weight proved the differences likely to be persistent between advantaged and disadvantaged states.

Keywords: Spatial Demography, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Economic Demography

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