Thesis Submitted for the Award of the Degree Of
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GENDER DISPARITY IN FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY IN ALIGARH DISTRICT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy IN GEOGRAPHY BY SADHANA SINGH UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. SYED NAUSHAD AHMAD DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2018 Dr. Syed Naushad Ahmad Department of Geography (Professor) Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh-202002 Dated:……………….. Certificate This is to certify that Sadhana Singh has completed her doctoral thesis on the title Gender Disparity in Food and Nutrition Security in Aligarh District under my supervision. The present research work in my opinion is fit for evaluation. (Prof. Syed Naushad Ahmad) Supervisor CANDIDATES’S DECLARATION I, Sadhana Singh, Department of Geography, certify that the work embodied in this Ph.D thesis is my own bonafide work carried out by me under the supervision of Prof. Syed Naushad Ahmad at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. The matter embodied in this Ph.D thesis has not been submitted for the award of any other degree. I declare that I have faithfully acknowledge, given credit to and referred to the research workers wherever their works have been cited in the text and the body of the thesis. I further certify that I have not willfully lifted up some other’s work, para, text, data, result etc. reported in the journals, books, magazines, reports, dissertations, theses, etc. or available at websites and included them in this Ph.D thesis and cited as my own work. Date:……………….. (Signature of the Candidate) Sadhana Singh ……………………………………………………………………………………………… CERTIFICATE FROM THE SUPERVISOR This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to the best of my knowledge. Signature of the Supervisor Prof. Syed Naushad Ahmad (Professor) Department of Geography Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (Signature of the Chairman of the Department with seal) COURSE/COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION/PRE- SUBMISSION SEMINAR COMPLETION CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Ms. SADHANA SINGH Department of Geography Aligarh Muslim University has satisfactory completed the course work/comprehensive examination and pre-submission seminar requirement which is part of her Ph.Dprogramme. Date…………………… (Signature of the Chairman of the Department) COPYRIGHT TRANSFER CERTIFICATE Title of the Thesis : Gender Disparity in Food and Nutrition Security in Aligarh District Candidate’s Name: Sadhana Singh Copyright Transfer The undersigned hereby assigns to the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh copyright that may exist in and for the above thesis submitted for the award of the Ph.D degree. (Signature of the Candidate) . ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Journey of writing this thesis has been fascinating and extremely rewarding. First of all, I thank Almighty God for His blessings in the successful completion of this research work. I am also thankful to the great visionary Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of this great institution of learning. It will always be a matter of honour for me to be a student of Aligarh Muslim University. I express my sincere regards and gratitude to my esteemed and learned supervisor, Prof. Syed Naushad Ahmad. His expertise, invaluable guidance, constant motivation and encouragement, affectionate attitude, and healthy criticism made the backbone of this research work.I am honestly fortunate to avail opportunity of getting him as my supervisor, without whom this work could not have been completed successfully. I also wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Ateeque Ahmad, Chairman, Department of Geography, A.M.U., Aligarh, for his guidance and constant encouragement which made it possible to conduct the research work smoothly. I am also very much grateful to Prof. Syed Waseem Ahmad Ashraf for providing me all possible advice to get this work completed. I am thankful to all non-teaching staff of the Department for their co-operation and encouragement. My thanks are due to Dr. ShafiquallahSiddiqui, Mr. Q.I. Hashmi, Mrs. TalatQuadri, and Mohd. Arif for their coordination. I am also thankful to staff members of Maulana Azad Library for their help to access relevant materials and data for my research purpose. I express my gratitude to my seniors Miss Rajni Sharma, Mrs. Gomatee, Mrs. SumanLata,Miss TabassumJahan, Dr. MD.NaiyerZaidy, Dr. ShabbirAhamad, Dr. AshishParashari, Dr. ZafarTabrez and Mr. H.K. Sharma. My friends and colleague supported me in many ways during my research period and they really deserve my sincere thanks. My thanks are due to Miss. AmirahBano, Miss. RaziaBano, Miss. NaushabaAhamad, Miss. Nida Fatima and Mr. DaudAhamad, Mr. MahtabAlam, Mr. Rajkumar, Mr. Jitendra, Mr. Nisar Ahmad, Mr. Dilshad, Mr. Manish, Mr. Yogesh, Miss. InayatBano, Miss. Mariya, Miss. Zoveriya, Miss. Rumana, Miss. Atika, Miss. Nida, Miss. Sadafand many others. i I am extremely grateful to my parents, Mrs. Kamlesh, Mrs. Saroj Devi and Mr. Padam Singh, Mr. Narendra Singh for their love, prayers, caring and sacrifices for educating and nurturing me for my future. I am very much thankful to my husband Mr. Nitin Kumar, (Asst. Professor) for his love, understanding and continuing support to complete this research work. Also, I express my special thanks to my family members, my sisters Rashmi, Poonam and Poojadidi and my younger brothers, Yatendra Singh and Kuldeep and Lalit. I am thankful also to my brother-in-law Mr. Kuldeep Kumar (SPG) for his proper guidance and motivation, whenever it was needed. I also would like to thank dear Kupoo, whose sweet talk and playful activities kept me cheerful when I was getting bored and tired. Here, it is not possible to mention every name, who helped me during my research. But I would also like to thank the people of my study area villages for their co-operation during the survey for data collection. At last, I am also thankful to University Grants Commission, New Delhi, for financial support through Research Fellowship. Sadhana Singh ii ABSTRACT Gender Disparity is the worst form of human rights violations in a society. The unequal gender relations result in the form of inequality and biasness in access, sharing, utilization of productive resources and power by women. Traditional roots of gender disparity forces the women not to equally enjoy the most basic human rights like- education, health, food and opportunities to become active human resources; and they become the unequal constitute of the major percentage of poverty, illiteracy and hunger and nutritional deprivations. Women are thus the most vulnerable sections of the society. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2006) report on hunger and malnutrition states that the female are the largest victims of the hunger and malnutrition non-proportionally and suffered from the high rate of anaemia, chronic energy deficiency (CED) and other nutritional disease in comparison to male. This gender dimension inclusion in the food and nutritional well-being recognised by FAO further point out that the gendered aspects of food security are visible along the all four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability. The Gender and Food issues are so threatening to humanity that they received highest priority in United Nations in their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). United Nation’s MDG goal No.1 has main focus for eradicating the extreme hunger. Priority of hunger removal on top slot clearly points out the severity of the problem. Enlisting the elimination of all dimensions of gender disparity and promotion of gender equity as its MDG goal No.3 by United Nation (UN) clearly bring the world focus on women’s inequality issues in all spheres of life. The grimness of these two issues are thus combinedly be analyzed as a research topic in this doctoral work. The gender disparity in the food and nutritional security not only affects women but it causes the multiplier intergenerational effect on children because the underweight and undernourished mothers give birth to the undernourished children. The poor nutritional and health situation increases the mortality rate in children causing unbalanced sex ratio in the society. This deprivation in food resources also has the cultural and ethical dimension which emphasis that the social upbringing in the society is highly gender biased. It also indicates the violation of all the natural 1 justice and constitutional provisions which secure the equal access and treatment for women in the society in all aspect of life. Objectives To make a comprehensive study, following objectives are selected 1. To analyze the patterns of gender inequality in health and nutritional status at household level. 2. To measure the nature and extent of gender inequality in dietary intakes in intrahousehold food consumption. 3. To explain the underlying factors which determine the gender disparity in nutrition and household food security. 4. To access the role of women empowerment on food and nutrition. 5. To suggest suitable measures and sustainable policy interventions to reduce the gap in food and nutrition and overall inequalities at district level. Hypotheses In order to understand the role of gender relations in explaining the gender inequality in food and nutrition in Aligarh district following research hypothesis have been formulated: 1. Females are more vulnerable to food and nutrition security. 2. Gender disparity in the food and nutrition security is the outcome of unequal gender relations within the household. 3. Women empowerment has positive impact on reducing the gender disparity in food and nutrition security.