India is one of the country to have about one-third of malnourished children in the world in the early 2000s. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malnutrition is the greatest threat to global public health. The National Family Health Survey (2005-06) results that child malnutrition rates in India is high. Some of the major effects of malnutrition are, weakness, recurring illness, delayed physical and mental development, irritability, low weight for age, poor learning ability, poor appetite stunting height for age, poor performance at school in terms of academics and sports. The present paper analyses the status of malnutrition, its causes and effects on the rural society. The study is based on both Primary and Secondary data. The objectives of the study are :- (i)To analyse the status of malnutrition in the research area. (ii)To study the problems and causes for Malnutrition. (iii)To understand the impact of Malnutrition. (iv) To examine the schemes and Programmes of the Government Agencies. The size of the study is 67 respondents from Pavagada Taluk of Tumkur District in Karnataka . The present study reveals that 82% of the people are seasonal farmers which indicates that they are unemployed throughout the year due to which the income is low. This leads to the poverty and further incapability to buy nutritious food grain and medicines which finally leads to malnutrition.