COVID-19 Lockdown Negatively Impacted Women's Nutrition In India: Study

"Women's diets were lacking in diverse foods even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has further exacerbated the situation," said Soumya Gupta, a research economist at TCI.

The nationwide lockdown in India in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on women's nutrition in the country, according to a study conducted by a group of researchers in the US. The study by Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition in four economically backward districts of Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj, Bihar's Munger, and Odisha's Kandhamal and Kalahandi indicate a decline in household food expenditures and women's dietary diversity in May 2020 compared to May 2019, particularly for non-staples like meats, eggs, vegetables, and fruits. It occurred despite the special Public Distribution System (PDS), direct benefit transfer and ration from aanganwadis reaching 80 per cent, 50 per cent and 30 per cent of the surveyed households, respectively, said the study published in the latest issue of Economia Politica journal. "Our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence of women's disproportionate vulnerability to economic shocks, the impact of a staple grain focused safety net programme, and restricted markets on the access and availability of diverse nutritious foods," says the paper which makes a case for policy reforms towards PDS diversification to include nutrition-rich foods and market reforms to remove supply-side bottlenecks and expansion of direct benefit transfers for healthy food access.