Caste-Gender Intersectionalities and the Curious Case of Child Nutrition: A Methodological Exposition

Abstract

A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three decades, mostly adopting qualitative methodologies. Quantitative attempts to capture intersectionality have been recent and few. We invoke the framework of intersectionality to shed light on the puzzle of an insignificant gender gap in child nutrition in India. Given the multifaceted intersections of caste and gender in shaping inequalities in other indicators such as childhood mortality, reported preference for sons and labour market outcomes, we examine the variations in nutritional status of children across the intersections of the two axes, sex and caste. This is a methodological paper, attempting to illustrate the various quantitative methods that have been used (with or without adhering to the term ‘intersectionality’) or may be used to capture intersectional inequalities. We elaborate three methods to study intersectionality, also discussing if and how they diverge substantively.