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 At least part of the answer may be a patriarchal society that puts
young women on the lowest rung of the social ladder, according to a
paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (PNAS).
Delhi-based economist Diane Coffey found that maternal health in
India is worse than previously believed, and that 42.2 percent of
Indian women of childbearing age are underweight.
"In India, young, newly married women are at the bottom of household
hierarchies, and have even lower social status than older women,"
said Coffey, a doctoral student at Princeton and visiting researcher
at the Delhi School of Economics.
"At the same time that Indian women become pregnant, they are often
expected to keep quiet, work hard and eat little," she said, adding
that young women cook family meals but often eat only leftovers,
after everyone else has finished.
Because weight gain during pregnancy averages 7 kg in both India and
Africa - compared with U.S. recommendations of 12.5 to 18 kg for
underweight women - many Indian women reach full-term pregnancy
weighing less than an average pre-pregnant sub-Saharan African
woman.
Infants whose mothers do not weigh enough when they are born are
more likely to die in the first month of life or be underweight
themselves, leading to stunted physical and cognitive growth later
in life.
Before Coffey's new estimates, the most commonly cited statistic was
from the Indian government's latest demographic and health survey
from 2005, showing that 35.5 percent of all adult women, aged 15 to
49, are underweight, she said.
However, pregnancy in India is concentrated between the ages of 18
and 25, so Coffey adjusted the statistics and arrived at a more
precise figure for underweight women in that age range, nearly 7
percentage points higher.
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By contrast, in much poorer Africa, 16.5 percent of pre-pregnant
women are underweight, the study said.
Coffey recommends the Indian government set up a monitoring system
to get more accurate numbers, and implement the National Food
Security Act (NFSA) passed in 2013, which includes a provision of
6,000 rupees ($95) in maternity benefits.
"Although there are no easy solutions for the crisis of maternal
underweight in India, it is extremely disappointing that last
month's budget didn't allocate funds for universal maternity
benefits," said Coffey, who founded and heads the nonprofit Research
Institute for Compassionate Economics (rice).
"Implementing this Act, which was passed nearly two years ago, would
be a good first step in addressing the problem," she added.
(Reporting by Alisa Tang, Editing by Tim Pearce)
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