Abstract
Women’s land ownership plays a noteworthy role in improving various development indicators, including her own wellbeing and children’s food and nutrition security. However, the literature linking women’s access to land rights to the nutritional security of children in Pakistan is limited, even though it is a country facing enormous challenges of childhood malnutrition and gender discrimination. This paper contributes to the existing literature on the benefits of empowering women by studying the association and pathways between women’s land rights and child nutrition, using the 2012–2013 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results indicate that women’s individual land ownership and women’s autonomy in large-scale family purchases have a positive impact on children’s food and nutrition security (FNS). The results of quantile regression (QR) show that these effects are more pronounced in cases of children with severe stunted growth. In addition, a structural equation model shows that the positive relationship between women’s land ownership and child nutrition is partially mediated by women’s increased decision-making power in large-scale household purchases. Our research concludes that ensuring women’s land rights can improve women’s autonomy, which can be an effective policy tool that not only improves women’s welfare but also improves their children’s nutritional security.
Highlights
Land is not just a physical entity but an important source of livelihood in agriculturally dependent economies
If it is owned by women, the importance of the land will further increase, as the existing literature has widely recognized that when resources are concentrated in women’s hands, it leads to the wellbeing of their residents, more than when resources are controlled by men [2,3]
This study demonstrated that women belonging to higher literacy and economic class were convinced that land ownership can be a source of economic and social status, but that they had to pay a high social price if they claim their rights, in the form of losing respect, relatives, and social legitimacy
Summary
Land is not just a physical entity but an important source of livelihood in agriculturally dependent economies. In addition to its financial importance, ownership of land is viewed as a symbol of power and status [1]. If it is owned by women, the importance of the land will further increase, as the existing literature has widely recognized that when resources are concentrated in women’s hands, it leads to the wellbeing of their residents, more than when resources are controlled by men [2,3]. Having no or poor access to land can have serious consequences for women living in countries where the economy depends on agriculture, as they remain dependent on their male relatives for livelihood and meeting the nutritional needs of their children [6]
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