Does women's participation in paid work lead to their better well-being? This analysis, through a primary survey carried out on the outskirts of Jaipur in Rajasthan, suggests a mixed picture. Participation in paid work is likely to bring some benefits to women but beyond a point the benefits are context-specific - whether women enter the labour force out of sheer survival necessity or due to other reasons.

We examine whether access to aspects of social infrastructure, such as toilet facilities, drinking water on the premises and clean cooking fuels, leads to a decline in the incidence of undernutrition among women, which remains quite high in India.

This paper analyses levels of women's malnutrition in India over the seven years between 1998-99 and 2005-06, based on the National Family Health Survey. During a period of higher growth and a reasonable pace of reduction in poverty, malnutrition especially iron-deficiency anaemia has increased among women from disadvantaged social and economic groups. The adverse influence of maternal malnutrition extends beyond maternal mortality to causing intrauterine growth retardation, child malnutrition and an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases.