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economlc constraints Most of the wage earners In the study village are agricultural
laborers wllll Iluctual~~ig job opportun~bes tlirougliout tlio yeor
(b) Nutritional status
Anthropometric measurements are used to assess the nutritional status of lndivlduals
Body mass index (BMI) or Quetlet's index IS an age Independent Index, which has been
found to correlate well with the nutritional status of infants and preschool children (Rao
and S1ngh.1970, Rao and Rao.1975, Raman ef a1.1989) Literature on the use of this
Index in school age children is Ihmited, although some investigators have found this to
be a sensitive index of nutnt~onal status In school age children, especially between 5-10
years of age (Babu and Chuttani,l878, Sundarem el a1.,1988. Ramakrishnan
el a1,1992) In this study, using 0.13 as the cut off po~nt for normal, ~t was observed
that 54 5% of girls and 60 2% of boys between 5-12 years were undernourished
WHO has advocated the use of a s~ngle ~nternat~onal reference data for growth
However some author~t~es felt that the reference standard der~ved from a developed
country bedme a very h~gh standard whlch was ~mposslble to reach by underprlvlleged
chlldren of develop~ng countries and therefore recommended the evolut~on of an
lndlgenous reference standard As far as lndla was concerned ~t was suggested that
the growth norms set by Agarwal based on affluent lnd~ans could be cons~dered as
lndlan reference standard (Mukher~ee.1997) In the current study ~t was observed that
tile rlledll l~olylit o11d welylil or botll y~rls and boys were less than tllo alllue~it indla~is
(Agarwal ef a1 1992) and NCHS standards (Flgures 5.6- 5 9)
The anthropometric data of the study group was compared with that reported by other
lnvestlgators In Tables 5.31A - 5.32 B. The values in the current study were found to