Why malnutrition in shining India persists*

India has a higher prevalence of child malnutrition, as manifested in stunting and underweight, than any other large country and was home to about one-third of all malnourished children in the world in the early 2000s. There are, however, substantial inter-state differences in child malnutrition and also in the (generally meagre) progress made since the early 1990s. The persistence of widespread malnutrition may seem surprising considering the recent overall shining performance of the Indian economy. Between 1993 and 2006 net state domestic product per capita nearly doubled in the wake of 4.5% average annual growth. The main objective of this paper is to identify the reasons why rapid economic growth has failed to reduce malnutrition more substantially. The methods used are OLS, instrument-variable, fixed-effect and first-difference regression analyses on the basis of panel data at the level of states in India. The results suggest that the persistence of malnutrition is mainly explained by modest poverty reduction ⎯ despite high overall economic growth ⎯ due to minuscule factor productivity and income growth in the agricultural sector, still employing 54% of the Indian labour force. Widespread rural female illiteracy and restricted autonomy for women are other significant explanations.