Understanding Nutritional Situation of Farm women in Rural Arid Areas of Rajasthan: A Case Study

The study was undertaken to assess nutritional status of rural women population in arid area of western Rajasthan. The socio-economic status (SES) of families was assessed by using Kuppaswami Scale (modified), and nutritional status was measured using BMIbased classification proposed by WHO, 2004. Undernutrition was found in women of all socio-economic classes and age groups. It was found that highest number of women with low body mass index (BMI) was in upper lower class 25.87 % followed by lower middle 19.57 % and upper middle 3.33 %. It was also observed that the proportion of severe and moderate under nutrition was high in upper lower and lower middle class. The observations indicated that young females of 18-30 year age group were most affected while the extent of under nutrition in the increasing age groups was lesser than the earlier.