Abstract          Childhood years constitutes the most crucial period in life, when the foundations are laid for cognitive, social and emotional language, physical and motor development and cumulative lifelong learning. The young child is most vulnerable to the vicious cycles of malnutrition, infection and resultant disability all of which influence the present condition of a child at micro level and the future human resource development of the nation at the macro level. The present study was a cross sectional study which was carried out in two randomly selected municipal schools of an urban area. The Study consisted of 400 school children from 6 - 9 yrs age group, in which 75 (18.75%) children were found to be stunted and 114 (28.5%) children were underweight. Prevalence of Malnutrition in the form of stunting, and underweight significantly associated with socioeconomic status, educational status of mother, type of family and high birth order. Health education, personal hygiene education, nutrition education may be made as part of the school curriculum.