Baseline characteristics of infants randomised in the primary trial (n=44 984)
| Variables | n (%) |
| Household characteristics | |
| Religion | |
| Hindu | 34 573 (76.9) |
| Muslim | 9906 (22.0) |
| Others* | 505 (1.1) |
| Caste† | |
| General | 12 041 (26.8) |
| Other backward class (OBC) | 21 892 (48.7) |
| Scheduled caste/tribe (SC/ST) | 11 051 (24.5) |
| Maternal characteristics | |
| Mother’s age (years) | |
| <20 | 3563 (8.0) |
| 20–30 | 38 747 (86.1) |
| >30 | 2674 (5.9) |
| Mother’s education (years of schooling) | |
| Illiterate (0) | 18 814 (41.8) |
| 1 to ≤9 | 16 667 (37.1) |
| 10 to <12 | 4383 (9.7) |
| ≥12 | 5120 (11.4) |
| Mother’s working status | |
| Work outside home | 1142 (2.5) |
| Homemaker | 43 842 (97.5) |
| Birth-related characteristics | |
| Place of delivery‡ | |
| Home | 19 478 (43.3) |
| Government facility | 14 136 (31.4) |
| Private facility | 11 326 (25.2) |
| Type of delivery | |
| Normal | 42 210 (93.8) |
| Caesarean | 2592 (5.8) |
| Assisted | 182 (0.4) |
| Singleton | 44 413 (98.7) |
| Multiple | 571 (1.3) |
| Parity | |
| Multiparity | 30 257 (67.3) |
| Primiparity | 14 727 (32.7) |
| Infant characteristics | |
| Sex of the baby | |
| Male | 23 418 (52.1) |
| Female | 21 566 (47.9) |
| Birth weight (g)§ | |
| ≥2500 | 34 317 (76.3) |
| 2000–2499 | 9403 (20.9) |
| <2000 | 1255 (2.8) |
*Others—Christian/Sikh/Jain/Parsi/Zoroastrian/Buddhist/neo-Buddhist.
†General—groups that do not qualify for any of the positive discrimination schemes by Government of India (GOI), OBC—term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are socially and educationally disadvantaged, SC/ST—official designations given to groups of historically disadvantaged indigenous people in India.
‡Remaining 44 births took place on way to health facility.
§Nine infants had data missing on birth weight.