Women’s low status and persistent gender gaps in health and education in South Asia contribute to chronic child malnutrition (Smith et al. 2003) and food insecurity (von Grebmer et al. 2009), even as other determinants of food security, such as per capita incomes, have improved. This is particularly relevant for Bangladesh, where chronic food insecurity continues to be an important issue despite steady advances in food production. To be able to leverage agriculture as an engine of inclusive growth, there is a need to develop indicators for measuring women’s empowerment, examine its relationship to various food-security outcomes, and monitor the impact of interventions to empower women.
Using nationally representative survey data from Bangladesh, authors Esha Sraboni, Hazel Malapit, Agnes Quisumbing, and Akhter Ahmed examine the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and two measures of household food security: per adult equivalent calorie availability and dietary diversity. Theyuse the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index to assess the extent of women’s empowerment in agriculture and instrumental variables techniques to correct for the potential endogeneity of empowerment. They find that the overall women’s empowerment score, the number of groups in which women actively participate, women’s control of assets, and a narrowing gap in empowerment between men and women within households are positively associated with calorie availability and dietary diversity.
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Warm greetings from the S. N. D. T. Women's University, Mumbai, India. I put forth following comments for publication entitled “Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture-What Role for Food Security in Bangladesh?” [IFPRI Discussion Paper 01297, October 2013]:
1. When we talk about empowerment of women in the context of food security, health aspect of women (especially mental health) is very important which has not been taken into account by the authors in this study. May be, further study, with this in mind, can be undertaken.
2. Page. 17: Under results: Women’s Empowerment and Food Security: Above Table 4.1 Women’s empowerment scores and household food-security outcomes: The authors have used the sentence: These results, together with the good performance of the instruments in general, suggest that household diet diversity and calorie availability increase if the primary female decisionmaker is more empowered. This statement (based on findings of the present research data) is true ONLY ICASE OF situations where empowerment of decisionmaker is followed by (a) increase in per household income, and (b) dissemination of health related knowledge and information.
I hope above inputs are found to be academically significant from research point of view. With best regards.
Academically Yours,
Dr. Santosh Kumar Mishra (Ph. D.)
Technical Assistant,
Population Education Resource Centre (PERC),
Department of Continuing and Adult Education and Extension Work,
S. N. D. T. Women's University,
Patkar Hall Building, First Floor, Room. No.: 03,
1, Nathibai Thackerey Road, Mumbai - 400020, Maharashtra, India.
Email: drskmishrain@yahoo.com
Tel.: +91-022-22066892 (O), +91–022–28090363 (R), +09224380445 (M)