Undernutrition and Inadequate Diet Among Ashram School Girls of Maharashtra

Objective: Nutrition status of adolescent girls is captured to represent their health and is supplemented with the dietary pattern followed in Ashram Schools as the direct relationship between food and nutritional status is well known. Methodology: The data were collected from adolescent girls aged 10–19 residing in 17 Ashram Schools situated in four regions of the state of Maharashtra using an interview schedule that covered 800 students and their socio-demographic, familial, health, nutrition and diet-related information. Data on the dietary pattern were collected by asking questions on the routine diet followed during the weekdays and on weekends for breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner. Results: It was found that around 77.2% girls are undernourished as per their BMI status, with 48.8% reporting severe underweight and 38% reported stunting for their reference age. The stark vulnerability was revealed when it was found that more than 69% of the total sample population has weight lag of more than 6–10 kg. The dietary pattern shows that most of the schools provide meal three times as the standard, and hence the diet deficient in terms of quantity and variety and lack nutritional content—lack of green leafy vegetables and milk. The stringent supply of chapati/bhakri/roti among students indicates the restriction in quantity, and the absence of nutritive foods indicates that the inmates are devoid of a balanced diet in their residential schools. Conclusion: Nutritional status, usually measured using moderate (−2 SD to −3 SD) and severe (≤3 SD) categories, also uses the proportion of weight and height deficits of vulnerable communities to understand the extent of severity. The real-time food consumption pattern in Ashram Schools of Maharashtra reveals the inadequacy of nutrient requirements in their dietary pattern, which was manifested in their low BMI, significantly greater proportion of underweight children and greater proportion of stunting.