Child-nutrition governance and outcomes in India: Comparative lessons from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh

India has experienced rapid economic growth in the past two decades but despite that, its nutrition outcomes amongst children have remained unsatisfactory, with 32 percent of children under five years old stunted (too short for age) and 19 percent wasted (too thin for height). These outcomes are a sign of both chronic and acute food and nutrition insecurity amongst large swathes of the country’s population. A closer look at the trajectory of food and nutrition security indicators in India suggests, however, that some Indian states made significant progress in this area in recent years whilst others experienced significant deterioration. This article explores, in two parts, the factors underlying this divergence. The first part undertakes a quantitative study of district-level data from the nationally representative National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV (2015-16) and V (2019-21). Amongst other aspects, the study examines whether the first COVID-19 lockdown has had any noticeable effects on Indian children’s nutrition outcomes, making use of the fact that some households were surveyed for NFHS V prior to the lockdown and some afterwards. We interrogate whether this difference in the timing of the survey might explain why children’s stunting and wasting rates in some Indian states appear to have considerably increased and in others considerably decreased between the fourth and fifth rounds of the NFHS, but the results do not indicate that the first lockdown had any significant food or nutrition-security effects. The second part of the study thus delves deeper into an exploration of the potential drivers of the divergence, through a comparative qualitative study of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Both states are located in the northwestern part of India but whilst most districts in Rajasthan managed to reduce child stunting and wasting in recent years, the opposite has been true in Himachal Pradesh. Based on field research and interviews with state government officials, civil servants, and civil society, our preliminary findings suggest that some of the drivers of Rajasthan’s relative success include greater policy integration in administering child nutrition programmes and relatively greater inclusion of animal-sourced foods in early-childhood supplementary nutrition programmes and school meals. Meanwhile, the reasons underlying Himachal’s relative deterioration in food and nutrition-security outcomes might include less amenable political situation and the ongoing disruption of the early childhood supplementary nutrition programme. An overarching finding from the study with ramifications not just for the two states’ but for all of India’s food and nutrition-security outcomes going forward, however, is the increasing politicisation of India’s religious movements and the associated growing disrepute of all animal-sourced foods other than milk and milk products. Because Indian children’s diets are generally very low in protein, this trend might further imperil efforts to improve children’s nutrition outcomes.