International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, 502324, Telangana, India
Online published on 13 December, 2019.
Despite enormous economic progress in the past three decades, malnutrition continues to be India's main human development challenge, and malnutrition rates remain high among children and adolescents in urban and rural areas. Adolescents, especially in tribal regions, are at high nutritional and health risk. This paper investigates the prevalence of malnutrition among adolescent tribal girls in the Adilabad, Komaram-Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial districts of Telangana. The analysis of anthropometric measures reveals that the body mass index (BMI) of 67% of adolescent girls is less than 18.5. Stunting and thinness are highly prevalent, overweight or obesity is not a concern and these girls lack awareness about food, nutrition and health.
