Comparative Study of Dietary Nutrition Index of Players of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Tribal Schools of Kanker Chhattisgarh India RASHMI SINGH 1 *, VASU VERMA 1 , ANIKSHAVARODA 2 and REETA VENUGOPAL 3 1 Govt. D. B. Girls P.G. College Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India 2 SOS in Anthropology, Centre for Women’s Studies and Research Scholar, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India 3 SoS in Physical Education & Director, Centre for Women’s Studies, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India Abstract Nutritional assessment of the adolescent is very important, as it provides the status of health. Calculating Dietary Nutrition Index (DNI) is an ideal method to the study nutritional status of any population. In the present study dietary index of the players who are studying in tribal schools of Chhattisgarh and players who are residing in urban area and training under Sports Authority of India was assessed. Total of 200 subjects aged between 14 to 17 years participated in this study. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to compare the nutritional status of diferent groups. The result of the study revealed that DNI of tribal boys and girls and SAI girls is inadequate. Further it was found that there was a signifcant diference between the groups. SAI boys and girls showed better values as compared to tribal boys and girls. It is suggested that intervention to meet the dietary requirement of the players should be planned for optimal performance. CONTACT Rashmi Singh singhrashmi1966@gmail.com Govt. D. B. Girls P.G. College Raipur Chhattisgarh, India. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY). Doi: 10.12944/CRNFSJ.9.1.28 Article History Received: 03 June 2020 Accepted: 25 January 2021 Keywords Dietary nutrition index (DNI); home diet; Sports Authority of India (SAI); Tribal School of Kanker (TSP). Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science www.foodandnutritionjournal.org ISSN: 2347-467X, Vol. 09, No. (1) 2021, Pg. 300-307 Introduction “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”---La Rochefoucuald. Community nutrition is a big challenge in every country. Education, provisions for individuals or groups to adopt healthy eating habits is to planned for better nutritional status. The availability of fast food and “supersized” items are regarded positively because of their cost and convenience, for example one may bypass a salad or fruits in favour of fries or a soda drink, 1 in urban and afuent population, whereas the rural and tribal population sufers from lack of proper resources