Prevalence of Malnutrition among under Five Children

Children are the future citizens, "Health of children is the wealth of the nation", said by Jawaharlal Nehru, the late prime minister of India. Any country whose children are sick or malnourished that country seems to be under developed. (Banerjee, 2002). Under nutrition jeopardizes children's survival, health, growth and development, and it slows national progress towards development goals. Undernutrition is often an invisible problem. A child who is in good health will be happy, active, creative, alert and bright. (WHO, 2000).The first five years of life are the most important for growth and development promoting good nutrition and dietary habits is one of the most important components of maintaining child health. (SINGH.M, 2004). Each community is different on child care and nutritional status and the practices vary from community to community. Hence the investigator felt that an assessment of nutritional status of children is important.