Socio-economic Demographics and Anthropometric Profiling for Assessment of Nutritional Status of Rural School Age Children of 7-9 Years of Rural Kanpur Districtof Uttar Pradesh, India

Despite recent achievements in economic progress in India, the fruit of development has failed to secure a better nutritional status among all children of the country. Growing evidence suggests the existence of a socio-economic gradient of childhood malnutrition in India. In many countries, including India, there is a clear socio-economic gradient in childhood malnutrition. For example, children from the poorest households are more likely to experience chronic malnutrition than those from wealthier families. Children from lower SES households often face higher risks of malnutrition, including undernutrition and stunting, compared to those from higher SES households. This is due to several factors, such as limited access to nutritious food, inadequate healthcare, and poor living conditions. Other variables, such as the mother's educational attainment and access to sanitary facilities, greatly influence a child's nutritional health. Children's socioeconomic position (SES) also significantly influences their nutritional status. The present paper is an attempt to measure the impact of socio-economic factors on childhood malnutrition in rural areas of the Kanpur district and to identify the role of household socioeconomic status (SES) as the determinant of the nutritional status of children. In the present study, the socioeconomic status is determined by three indicators, i.e. educational status, occupational status and income of the family. The findings indicated that the majority of families (57.31%) belonged to the upper lower class followed by the lower middle class (22.69%) and lower class (18.08%) of the socioeconomic scale used in the present study. Whereas, the anthropometric data of the children's body measurements revealed that the majority of boys and girls were stunted and undernourished as they were not meeting the WHO standard for height and weight for the 7-9 years of age group. The study supported that socioeconomic factors of the family are determinants of the nutritional status of children.