This paper examines whether attendance in full-day community creches is associated with improved nutritional outcomes among young children in rural India. Drawing on Monitoring and Information System data from creches supported by the Azim Premji Foundation in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, we analyse longitudinal weight and height records for ~11,000 children aged six months to three years. We exploit variation in age at entry and duration of exposure to trace weight-for-age and weight for-height trajectories for children enrolled in these creches. At admission, children are substantially lighter and thinner than both WHO growth standards and children of the same age in the National Family Health Survey, 2019 – 21 (NFHS‑5) from the same districts of APF creches. Fixed-effects regressions show that longer exposure is systematically associated with higher final weight with stronger associations for children who enter at younger ages. We find evidence of catch-up growth as well, with the median child gaining more than 300 grams in weight for each month spent in the creche.

Authors:

Ashutosh Kumar, Dipa Sinha, and Arjun Jayadev

India exhibits high and persistent rates of undernutrition and a growing prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies — particularly anemia — as well as overweight and obesity. Addressing this triple burden requires diverse, nutritious diets, yet Indian diets remain limited in diversity and nutritional quality, characterized by heavy reliance on cereals and cereal-based foods. Previous studies have shown that diets consistent with India’s food-based dietary guidelines are unaffordable for a large proportion of the population. Using data from the 2023 – 24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, we characterize dietary composition and food expenditure in India. We then use derived commodity-level prices to provide updated and representative estimates of the cost and affordability of vegetarian and nonvegetarian diets that meet India’s food-based dietary guidelines. We find that Indian diets are high in visible fat consumption and that most protein is derived from low-quality sources, such as cereals, while consumption of nutrient-dense or high-protein foods remains limited even for the richest deciles. We estimate the daily cost of a healthy vegetarian diet at INR 63.6 per consumer unit and a non-vegetarian diet at INR 73.1 at the all-India level. An estimated 31.2% of urban and 56.6% of the rural population would need to increase their current food expenditure to meet the cost of a healthy diet. If instead we compare our costs against the threshold defined by the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2025 report, we find that 8.3% of urban and 32.6% of rural populations cannot afford a nutritionally adequate diet. While social safety nets subsidize cereals, thereby increasing affordability for the poorest, additional items such as spices and cooking fuel raise total costs. We assess these extensions and discuss policy implications.

Authors:

Kalyani Raghunathan, Anshuman Singh, Dipa Sinha

This paper investigates a striking puzzle in recent rural India: individual real wages have shown weak or stagnant growth for large segments of the labour force, while house hold per-capita incomes have risen materially and, in many cases, faster among lower deciles. Using microdata from the Periodic Labor Force Survey(PLFS)2017 – 2023, wedocu mentthese contrasting patterns and reconcile them. First we undertake a simple decompo sition that separates (i) average real wage per earner, (ii) the number of earners per house hold, and (iii) household size. Our empirical analysis shows that demographic and labour supply adjustments — chiefly an increase in earners per household driven by rising labour force participation and expanded non-farm employment — accountforthebulkofobserved gains in household per-capita income even as individual real wages remain subdued. Dis tributional analysis reveals that percentage growth has been relatively progressive (lower deciles recording larger proportional gains), but absolute level gaps persist and, in many cases, widen. We further disaggregate decile income by occupational category and find that lower deciles have seen significant shifts from casual work to self-employed status. Since the latter category provides, on average, higher incomes, this can partially explain muchof the observed progressivity of household income growth.

Authors:

Arjun Jayadev, Avinash M Tripathi and M.K Shravan