Researchers have long puzzled over why children in India, despite being wealthier, are shorter and smaller than children in sub-Saharan Africa. At least part of the answer may be a patriarchal society that puts young women on the lowest rung of the social ladder, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Delhi-based economist Diane Coffey found that maternal health in India is worse than previously believed, and that 42.2 percent of Indian women of childbearing age are underweight. “In India, young, newly married women are at the bottom of household hierarchies, and have even lower social status than older women,” said Coffey, a doctoral student at Princeton and visiting researcher at the Delhi School of Economics. “At the same time that Indian women become pregnant, they are often expected to keep quiet, work hard and eat little,” she said, adding that young women cook family meals but often eat only leftovers, after everyone else has finished.

Click Here To Read More