Analyzing gender differentials in dietary diversity across urban and peri-urban areas of Hyderabad, India.

BACKGROUND: India's recent increase in urbanization alongside with feminization of rural agriculture could increase the existing gender disparities in dietary diversity. With many rural men migrating to urban areas, women have increased domestic burdens as well as productive burdens such as making informed crop production decisions so household members consume a diverse diet. Given the rapid and recent onset of this phenomenon, there is a need to explore gender differentials in diet diversity across urban and rural areas to assess if certain populations are being disproportionately impacted by this trend. There are limited established quantitative studies discussing this gender disparity with respect to urbanization. Therefore, this paper compares dietary diversity among adult men, adult women, adolescent males, and adolescent females in urban and peri-urban locations. The authors also assess if various sociodemographic factors correlate with dietary diversity. METHODS: Analyses were conducted on dietary diversity data collected by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from selected urban (1108 individuals) and peri-urban (808 individuals) locations of Hyderabad, India. The total sample size of the population is n = 1816: 660 adult males, 662 adult females, 205 adolescent males, and 289 adolescent females. RESULTS: Adult women and adolescent females have a higher diet disparity between peri-urban and urban areas when compared to adult males and adolescent males. Multivariate analyses followed by post hoc multiple comparisons testing further support that peri-urban adult women consume a less diverse diet compared to their urban counterparts and less than other peri-urban adult men and adolescent women. It was also found that marital status, type of household card owned, and the highest degree of education are statistically significant correlators of an individual's dietary diversity. CONCLUSIONS: Given that urbanization could negatively impact already vulnerable populations such as peri-urban adult women, who play a key role in children's nutrition, it is important to provide support to these populations. This paper suggests it is possible to do so through government subsidization of peri-urban farmers to grow more diverse crops, fortifying easily accessible foods with commonly lacking micronutrients, including Vitamin A, folic acid, and iron, market access, and affordable prices.

COVID-19 Impact on Household Food Security in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas of Hyderabad, India.

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and on coping-strategies in urban and peri-urban areas of the Hyderabad, India. Household survey data were collected before (October 2018) and during (January 2021) the onset of the pandemic. Results from logistic regression with the standarized Food Insecurity Expecience Scale (FIES) as dependent variable reveal that close to 40% of the households surveyed experienced a deterioration in food security status during the pandemic. In particular, we find that food security is closely related to the sector of employment in which the primary income- earning member of a household is engaged. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their food security, our sampled households adopted a variety of consumption-smoothing strategies including availing credit from both formal and informal sources, and liquidating their savings. Compared to households with severe or moderate level of food insecurity, households facing a mild level of food insecurity relied on stored food as a strategy to smoothen consumption in response to the income shock imparted by the pandemic. In addition, the results indicate that urban households, who adopted similar coping strategies as those adopted by peri-urban households, tended to be more food-insecure. Finally, the duration of unemployment experienced during the pandemic significantly influenced the status of household food security. These findings can inform the formulation of immediate and medium-term policy responses, including social protection policies conductive to mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and ameliorating the governance of urban food security during unexpected events and shocks.

Understanding nutritional outcomes through gendered analysis of time-use patterns in semi-arid India.

The objective of this paper is to understand individual nutritional outcomes through an examination of gendered time use patterns. The analysis of the data from eight villages in the Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT), India confirm previous conclusions about the gendered influence of agricultural interventions, especially time demands on the rural poor. Agricultural interventions in the harsh, drought-prone environment of the SAT tend to increase the time burden on women. Sociological perspectives indicate that changes in time use patterns are also due to changing agricultural practices such as cropping patterns, type of productive work (farm to non-farm) among other factors, leading to variations in outcomes like nutrition for different members of the household. These changes demand innovative gender-responsive approaches and policies to leverage agriculture for nutrition and health. The paper concludes that empowering women through more information and control over income, assets and resources enhances their agency to make decisions for efficient time use, food consumption, sanitation and healthy practices. The authors opine that the context is important and policies must be based on sound data and rigorous analysis, including social and gender considerations.