Socioeconomic inequality in child malnutrition in India: searching for a SES gradient

Background & Introduction: Hunger is synonymous with poverty and both are inseparably linked. Access to food and improved nutrition constitutes an undeniable basic human right and one of the central goals of development processes aiming reduction of poverty and inequality. Reducing malnutrition is thus central to the notion of reducing poverty itself. Malnutrition is a global public health and development concern with important health and socioeconomic consequences. The importance of reducing malnutrition has been acknowledged in the MDGs as well and constitutes one of the prime targets of development processes globally to ameliorate different dimensions of nonincome poverty. From this perspective, this paper is an attempt to contribute to the growing empirical evidence on the linkage between malnutrition and poverty drawing on recent household survey data from India, a country plagued with widespread undernourishment among children.