Preliminary Anthropometric Assessment of Nutritional Status for Rural Women in Shivpuri and Datia Districts of Madhya Pradesh State in India

This paper presents certain preliminary findings what are observed from real ground conditions on prevailing health and nutritional indicators for rural women which are socioeconomically deprived and living their life in constraint full conditions in two of the backward districts (Shivpuri and Datia) districts of Madhya Pradesh state of India. An effort is made to generate real ground information on prevailing status of rural women in regards to their health and nutritional status. Values of certain basic anthropometric indicators of nutrition were derived and reported herein to show the average situation of rural women by incorporating as much as 10 villages. The overall results have indicated the prevalence of under nutrition in both the regions, even being much higher than minimum global values. Findings reveal that the rural women in both the region are in a state of great deprivation due to poor socio economic status and lack of awareness about their health and nutrition. Anthropometric measurements showed that the heights deficits were more as compared to weight. BMI indicated that the half of the population on an average is nutritionally low in terms of their assessment and prevalence of underweight type of malnutrition is very much evident. It is recommended that there is an urgent need to create awareness about these deficits, and suitable regional strategies need to be implemented to combat them, among the communities at large, and the women in particular.