Fasting Practices and the Nutritional Implications of Fasting in Rural Haryana Women

In India we have considerable reason to believe that women's access to food within the family or household is not only well below desired levels but also significantly less than men. Women's food intake is grossly inadequate for their needs. The pertinent correlation of women's lower access to food have been identified to be agricultural policies and programmes; food production per se, mechanisation and commercialisation of farming; shifts from subsistence farming to cash crops, and the marginalisation and parperisation of small cultivators. The socio-cultural factors also lead to a gender bias in the intra-family distribution of foods.