Abstract
The chapter discusses the resilience of vegetarianism in India and its connection to geographic, gender, and social disparities. The prevalence of vegetarianism in India is influenced by religious tenets, with groups like Jains, Christians, and Hindus having varied dietary rules. However, vegetarianism’s spatial distribution displayed on the map is not solely determined by social composition but also by local social norms, socioeconomic status, caste, and regional factors. Interestingly, a puzzling northwestern gradient of vegetarianism adds to the enigmas surrounding food consumption patterns in India.
While vegetarianism remains significant, frequent non-vegetarian consumption is observed in more affluent regions. This transition to non-vegetarian consumption is not universal but can increase based on individual socioeconomic status, reducing the gender gap in food consumption. Thus, food transition in India may involve some individuals consuming more non-vegetarian items while others, particularly women, continue vegetarian diets.
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Notes
- 1.
These annual estimates are computed from the Food Balance Sheet, 2020, provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
- 2.
The original NFHS dataset and the spatial analysis methodology are described in detail in Chap. 1.
- 3.
Overall, the proportion of men and women aged 18–60 years enjoying food outdoors is 6.7 and 1.8% respectively. These figures are computed from the “Consumer Expenditure Survey” 2011–2012 in the National Sample Survey Office. Surveys, however, fail to document the extent of indoor versus outdoor non-vegetarian consumption.
- 4.
The former Union Territory of Daman and Diu represents the only case of higher vegetarianism among men.
- 5.
As a matter of fact, we do not know of other measures of spatial autocorrelation for Indian districts above 0.9.
- 6.
The tabulation of disaggregated caste data from the NFHS-4 would allow a more detailed analysis since specific caste groups such as Brahmins or Vaishyas (among forward castes) are more vegetarian, whereas Kshatriyas (also forward castes) tend to be non-vegetarian (Staples, 2014).
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Ferry, M. (2023). Vegetarianism and Non-Vegetarian Consumption in India. In: Guilmoto, C.Z. (eds) Atlas of Gender and Health Inequalities in India. Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47847-5_3
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