Anthropometric Assessment of Physical Growth and Nutritional Status among School Children of North Bengal

The study was carried out on 4457 primary school going children to investigate the physical growth as well as nutritional status of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts (part of North Bengal) of West Bengal. Standard anthropometric methods were applied to measure the height and weight of the children. The children were selected randomly from the low socioeconomic group as per guideline of our State Government. Our study shows that average height of the girls was more than the boys. From the view of weight for age, nutritional status shows poorer when it was compared with the nutritional status from the light of height for age as per Waterlow's classification. The weight of children was not increasing with the advancement of age. Physical growth as well as nutritional status of boys was affected more than the girls. Children of higher age group were more affected nutritionally. The weight for age classification shows that no child of 12+ year age was normal. Only 5.14 % children of 12+ year age were found with normal physical growth considering the nutritional status from the view of height for age.