Less than half of pregnant women in rural India get nutritious food: Survey

In each state, the survey teams visited 10-12 randomly selected anganwadis (spread over two blocks in the same district) and interviewed as many as possible of the pregnant and nursing women registered at those anganwadis: 342 and 364 respondents respectively.

Less than half of pregnant women in rural India eat nutritious food and majority are deprived of quality health care, revealed an independent survey done by three researchers associated with the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and Ranchi University.

Less than half of pregnant women in rural India eat nutritious food and majority are deprived of quality health care.

The survey, titled Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS), was conducted by Jean Dreze, professor, Ranchi University, Reetika Khera, associate professor, IIM Ahmedabad and Anmol Somanchi, research associate with IIM-A in six states — Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

In each state, the survey teams visited 10-12 randomly selected anganwadis (spread over two blocks in the same district) and interviewed as many as possible of the pregnant and nursing women registered at those anganwadis: 342 and 364 respondents respectively.

According to the survey, only 22% of the nursing women reported that they had been eating more than usual during their pregnancy.