{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.018315018315018316, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0007326007326007326, 'mean_word_length': 5.324074074074074, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Impact of Mother's Health Seeking Behavior and Employment status on Child Malnourishment and Access to ICDS: A Regional Analysis

Child malnutrition is a serious and persistent health problem of most of the developing countries, including India. Though there is no dearth of literature on socio-economic determinants of child malnutrition across different country settings, the impact of maternal health seeking behavior and her employment status have remained understudied. This paper, in an attempt to bridge this gap, focuses on locating the impact of mother’s receipt of ante-natal care on child malnutrition, using a bivariate probit model on NFHS 3 unit level data. The results show that receipt of ante-natal care within first trimester of pregnancy significantly reduces the chance of malnutrition in regions in India, characterized by high share of stunted children. The gain from mother’s education appear to be partially lost if they are engaged in labour market primarily owing to reduced time for child care. Also, the access to Integrated Child Development Scheme faces certain serious socio-economic barriers in different regions in India, thus limiting the intervention net of the central government. This study succinctly points out certain policy implications for different states in the country, depending on their regional socio-economic milieu.