The Impact of Climatic shocks on children’s health in India

Type Website Document
Title The Impact of Climatic shocks on children’s health in India
Author(s)
URL http://www.isid.ac.in/~pu/conference/dec_12_conf/Papers/VibhutiMendiratta.pdf
Abstract
While there is little evidence of discrimination against girls in the allocation of resources within a household under normal circumstances, it would be worthwhile to explore the effect of extreme conditions such as rainfall shocks on the outcomes of surviving girls and boys. I explore two channels through which rainfall affects child health: by affecting time spent by mothers in childcare particularly breastfeeding (as rainfall affects demand for mother’s labour on the farm) and through income (as rainfall generates variation in income through its effect on agricultural output). In this paper, I estimate the impact of rainfall shocks around the time of birth on the probability of being breastfed as well as anthropometric outcomes of girls and boys aged 13-35 months in rural India. I find that adverse negative rainfall shocks negatively impact height for age and weight for age for both girls and boys. On the other hand, above average rainfall increases the risk of termination of breastfeeding.

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