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Developing Nations bear the greatest burden of infectious disease and have limitations on the food front as well. These two situations work synergistically to put a lot of stress on the physical growth of children living in the developings world thus impinging on their health, survival and habitual physical activity. Professor Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 1998 dedicated his efforts to work on the welfare economics by correlating the health situation with economic indicators. In a real and functional sense, the size of the children, adolescents and adults is indicative of the fact how a nation performs on its economic and developmental front. Though nobody doubts the interaction between genetics and environment in determining the outcome of child growth, extricating the effects of these two is highly cumbersome. A large number of studies have indicated that the growth performance of children in the developing world is slower than their peer in the developed world. Indian scenario of child growth and development is alarming. Data compiled by WHO has shown that underweight children in India below the age of 5 years constitutes 43.5 per cent of all children during the year 2006. This is a huge number and an eye opener for every progressive Indian.This volume is the outcome of the papers dedicated to the Panel “BH 01: Health, Nutrition and Physical Growth in Developing Nations” of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) World Congress “Evolving humanity, emerging worlds” held at Manchester, UK, from 5th-10th August, 2013. Different papers in this edited volume throw light on the status of children throughout India and delve in detail about the conditions in which they are living and thriving. It is expected that this book will be of immense value to the scholars (viz. students of anthropology, biology, demography, economics, geography, sociology, medicine, public health, health management etc.) and planners equally.