A descriptive study was conducted to assess the protein energy malnutrition among school children studying at Tarbhon Primary School of Surat district of Gujarat in the month of February 2017. A total of 150 school children belonged to the age group of 5 to 14 years were included in the study after obtaining informed consent by using non probability purposive sampling technique. A physical examination tool including anthropometric measurements was used to assess the BMI status of the children. Based on BMI status the school children were classified into four categories namely no malnutrition, mild malnutrition, moderate malnutrition and severe malnutrition. The results of the study depicts that out of 150 children, majority of the children belonged to the age group between 11-13 years (52%) and the minimum number (9%) were belonged to the age group between 5-7 years of age. The majority of subjects were male children 77 (51%) and rest 73 (49%) were female children. The majority of children 85 (57%) were residing at nuclear family and rest 65 (43%) were residing at joint family. Majority of children having Moderate malnutrition [79(53.5%)], minimum number of them were having severe Malnutrition [4 (2%)], and rest were having Mild malnutrition [63(42.5%)] status. Only 4 (2%) children were found to be normal and there is a significant retationship between Age and family structure with status of malnutrition. The study concludes that, there is an urgent attention is required by the government, parents of school children and school teachers towards prevention of PEM among the school children.
