Socio-cultural factors influencing the nutrition of girls and women in rural Maharashtra, India
Socio-cultural factors influencing the nutrition of girls and women in rural Maharashtra, India
A recent study of maternal nutrition and fetal growth in rural Maharashtra (the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study) showed that maternal size and body composition are strong determinants of fetal growth and that women had lower BMIs than their menfolk. This study aimed to examine, in the same population, the social and cultural factors at both community and household level, which lead to gender differences in the nutritional status of adults and children.
Focus group discussions were used to obtain the community's viewpoint on the causes of the low nutritional status of women. Sons and daughters are treated equally in terms of provision of food and health care, although families prefer sons as future name bearers for the family. In contrast, marriage brings several changes for young women, which add together to reduce her nutritional status. They include a significant increase in workload (both at home and on the farm), and lack of rest and leisure. Furthermore, young women nutritionally deplete themselves by starting to fast, a characteristic ritual after marriage for women. In addition, the new bride is expected to bear a child within a year of marriage. On the other hand, men although working hard on the farm, seldom do any household chores and get rest in the evenings. They eat first in the house, and have freedom and access to cash, enabling them to eat extra snacks and tea in the village. Men are aware of the fact that life for rural women is very hard. The recent change from bride price to dowry, although apparently a retrograde step, is the parents' way of getting their daughters out of this situation and into better-off households.
University of Southampton
Chorghade, Ginny Priyanka
851f3f86-7824-47c8-9966-460d560cea93
2001
Chorghade, Ginny Priyanka
851f3f86-7824-47c8-9966-460d560cea93
Chorghade, Ginny Priyanka
(2001)
Socio-cultural factors influencing the nutrition of girls and women in rural Maharashtra, India.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
A recent study of maternal nutrition and fetal growth in rural Maharashtra (the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study) showed that maternal size and body composition are strong determinants of fetal growth and that women had lower BMIs than their menfolk. This study aimed to examine, in the same population, the social and cultural factors at both community and household level, which lead to gender differences in the nutritional status of adults and children.
Focus group discussions were used to obtain the community's viewpoint on the causes of the low nutritional status of women. Sons and daughters are treated equally in terms of provision of food and health care, although families prefer sons as future name bearers for the family. In contrast, marriage brings several changes for young women, which add together to reduce her nutritional status. They include a significant increase in workload (both at home and on the farm), and lack of rest and leisure. Furthermore, young women nutritionally deplete themselves by starting to fast, a characteristic ritual after marriage for women. In addition, the new bride is expected to bear a child within a year of marriage. On the other hand, men although working hard on the farm, seldom do any household chores and get rest in the evenings. They eat first in the house, and have freedom and access to cash, enabling them to eat extra snacks and tea in the village. Men are aware of the fact that life for rural women is very hard. The recent change from bride price to dowry, although apparently a retrograde step, is the parents' way of getting their daughters out of this situation and into better-off households.
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Published date: 2001
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Local EPrints ID: 464522
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/464522
PURE UUID: b7ab7f7b-d5fa-4cc8-87ce-3bd41ae3a7d4
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 23:43
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:34
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Author:
Ginny Priyanka Chorghade
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