Agricultural Climate Vulnerability and Differential Health Outcomes for Women and Children in Indian Agrarian Districts: Evidence From District‐Level Regression Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Climate‐induced agricultural distress is a significant social issue in India, where changes in rainfall and temperature affect crops and food security. This study assesses the role of agrarian climate vulnerability in determining child nutrition and women's health in India's large agricultural states. The Agricultural Vulnerability Index (AVI; 0.34–0.74), Child Health Index (CHI; 0.74–0.85), and Women's Health Index (WHI; 0.31–0.75) have been developed at the district level using NICRA and NFHS‐5 data, and spatial trends and multivariate regression models have been used to estimate their impact. The findings indicate that socio‐economic deprivation and poverty have a statistically significant positive effect on CHI (0.0035). In contrast, AVI has a less significant and negative impact (−0.0091), suggesting that child‐focused welfare programmes partially buffer against socioeconomic deprivation. Conversely, women's health declines rapidly as vulnerability to agriculture increases, with a significant negative impact on WHI (0.0149), indicating a gender‐specific nutritional disadvantage in agrarian households. Therefore, based on the results, a climate‐nutrition policy cannot be based on any generalised scheme; maternal nutrition and workload interventions should be prioritised in high‐AVI districts, but child‐focused interventions should be poverty‐rather than vulnerability‐based. This shows that climate‐nutrition policies should be district‐based and gender‐sensitive to reduce nutritional inequities in agrarian areas.