A STUDY ON GENDER DISPARITY IN NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN IN A RURAL COMMUNITY OF ALLAHABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA.

Though the importance of girl child has been stressed time and again, yet a wide level of disparity still exists, whether implicit or explicit, in nutrition and child care both in the rural and urban areas. Different underlying factors are responsible for this disparity. Girls face discrimination from the moment she is born. The UNICEF intergenerational cycle of malnutrition stresses on the fact that the problem of malnutrition spans generation and is a vicious cycle. Therefore this study is conducted to document the gender disparity in nutritional status with the objectives to compare the gender disparity in nutritional status in children aged 7-12 years in rural areas and to assess the different socio-demographic factors influencing the gender disparity. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Allahabad area of Uttar Pradesh. A total of 161 children were examined and their mother?s were interviewed. Male children were more malnourished than female children. Although the frequency of falling ill is the same between both the genders, the treatment was given more importance to male than female children. The overall prevalence of disease was low in our study area. The majority of the children suffered with fever, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infection. Significant differentiation was observed between the male and female children with regard to the time lag between child falling ill and initiation of treatment and the amount spent for treatment. Male children were more malnourished than female children. This is contrary to the general belief that female children are more malnourished.