Nutritional Inequality among Children in India: Mapping the Horizontal and Vertical Inequalities, 1992-2021

Divyanshi Verma, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Using the pooled dataset from NFHS-1 (1992-93) to NFHS-5 (2019-21), an attempt is made to estimate horizontal and vertical inequality in childhood malnutrition based on economic status of household. The study has used three types of inequality indices, namely the Gini Index, Group Gini index, and Wagstaff concentration indices, for measuring the level of inequality in child undernutrition: Stunting, Wasting and underweight. Further, we decomposed the grouped Gini index into Horizontal (Between Group), Vertical (Within Group across the Individuals) and Overlapping part of Between and Within Inequalities. The horizontal inequality analysis observes that the inequality is more concentrated to the children belonging from poor economic stratum while the vertical inequality analysis shows that there is very slight difference in the individual to individual inequality between poorest and the richest stratum of the population. Hence, the presence of vertical inequality may trigger further pro-rich inequality in nutritional status if not supported by any targeted policy. Thus, the paper concludes that policies on nutrition should recognize that making policies at broader level by considering the concept of horizontal inequality alone will not work to eradicate the malnutrition among children rather policy making needs a more focussed approach.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination

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