Notwithstanding the impressive economic growth record in the recent past, India continues to have high rates of malnutrition, especially among women and children.

This paper examines two interrelated questions; What is the extent of gender gap in adult malnutrition in India and whether such gender gap is specific to India alone? These questions analyzing the National Family Health Survey (2005-06) unit-level data.

On the 16th of March 1998, at the final hearing of the writ petition filed by the All India Democratic Women's Association and the faculty of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, the Drug Controller of India gave a written commitment to