Socio-economic vulnerability assessment of female children to malnutrition in rural Baramulla district of Kashmir Himalayas, India

The main objective of the study is to examine the socio-economic vulnerability of the female children (0-12 years) to malnutrition in the rural Baramulla district of Kashmir Himalayas, India. Thirty-six rural villages were selected by stratified sampling method and about three hundred seventy-five female children were assessed for anthropometric measurements using schedule and multi-structured questionnaires prepared and pre-tested. Only those households which had at least one female child in the house (0-12 years) were included in the study. The study revealed that the socio-economic factors like family income, mother's education, father's education and number of children in the family depict high level of significant association to the vulnerability of malnutrition among female children in the study area. However, age of the female children inferred insignificant association in this case. In the high altitudinal and backward environment of the study area, people mostly live the life of poverty, conservatism, ignorance and orthodoxy against females and thus in these families, females are ignored and became vulnerable to various sufferings. Majority of the population in the study area have a less awareness, low level of education, patriarchal family form and are restricted to the beliefs which they were following from very beginning. Female children are still being considered as a suppressed and unsophisticated creation and are often neglected in their access to nutrition, health care and education. It is concluded that the improvement in this scenario can be brought by creating general awareness through mass media about the positive aspects of the female children in the study area and this will play a pivotal role in preventing and reducing the malnutrition disease burden in the study area.