Nutritional Status and Food Consumption Pattern in Disadvantaged Areas of Madhya Pradesh

The paper has assessed the awareness on nutrition and food consumption in the disadvantaged areas of Madhya Pradesh by conducting a study in the districts of Dhar and Datia using a structured interview schedule for data collection with in-built 24-hour diet recall section. The sample group comprised 240 respondents (30 men, 30 women, 30 boys and 30 girls in each district). The problem of under-nourishment was less across males than females in both the districts. A sixteen food group model (FAO) was used to evaluate Diet Diversity (DD) individually based on the number of food groups consumed in the previous 24-hour period. The actual consumption of all the food groups by the respondents was quantified and it was found that consumption was almost half of the recommended dietary allowance across all the categories. The most-consumed food groups were cereals, vegetables, milk and milk products and the least consumed were pulses and fruits. Overall, IDDS was medium ranging from 3.9 to 4.7 (Dhar) and 5.0 to 6.4 (Datia). The study has concluded that dietary diversity is poor and efforts to improve nutritional status must address the issue of nutrition education, dietary diversity and nutrition sensitive agriculture.