By Nidhi Kinhal
Meal time in India, especially among the rural poor, is set in protocol and tradition. Women serve the food first to their husbands or fathers, followed by their children, and their own consumption comes last. This is why, as Freedom from Hunger India Trust and Grameen Foundation found from their Rajasthan Nutrition Project, that it’s not enough to increase food supply and access through the Public Distribution System and Integrated Child Development Services, as governments usually do.
It’s simple: Even previous studies have found that households simply do not have a consumption or food distribution pattern based on need. A survey of 403 women in Rajasthan, conducted under the project, showed that women with a lesser voice in running the household were more likely to have less food for their children, and were more vulnerable to malnutrition.
About 50 percent of all childhood deaths in India are caused by malnutrition, and hunger remains a grave issue, so the two-year old project decided that breaking this pattern is what would ensure that the increase in food supply is converted into a betterment in people’s health and nutrition, and a more equitable distribution within families. Working with poor tribal communities in districts of Sirohi and Banswara, the initiative made women more aware of nutrition, and their husbands gender sensitive enough to give up the notion that their needs are first.
Saraswathi Rao, CEO of Freedom from Hunger India Trust, said, “We chose to address intra-household food consumption disparity — the fact that in one household alone, the women and children could be food insecure while the men are food secure.” The involvement of Self Help Groups ensured that the methodology was effective, because like Roli Singh, secretary of Rajasthan’s department of women and child development pointed out, “it involves the community; making local women a part of the solution always works better than advocacy by an external agent.”
The percentage of couples jointly deciding on how much food to serve family members has since increased from 12 percent to 19 percent, whereas the families in which husband alone decides has reduced from 31 percent to a pleasantly surprising 3 percent. An overall improvement has been observed in health savings, women’s treatment, breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, and women’s ability to administer basic treatments like the Oral Rehydration Solution.
It’s amazing what a simple change in routine, and decision-making strategies can do to maximise impact. Recognising that women’s needs must also be prioritised, and that sacrifice is not a virtue can be a big step for communities conditioned into a system of values and functioning. These are small tendencies we see all around us, and hardly question, but it is important to consider the effects of breaking some of them, to establish a general culture that considers women’s needs as equal, and minimise the massive problems that we have repeatedly failed to eliminate.