Anthropometric and socio-economic information on 12 124 adolescent boys and girls and dietary information on 2579 individuals in 2019-2020 was available for the analysis. The major occupation of the heads of the households surveyed was agriculture. More than a third (37.3%) of the families with adolescents did not possess any land. The per capita income per month was about Rs 250/- at 2019-2020 prices. About 23% of the adolescent girls were married before the age of 18 year. About a quarter of the married adolescent girls had short stature and 18.6% were underweight. About 39% of the adolescents were stunted (< Median 7 2 s.d. of NCHS height for age) irrespective of sex. The prevalence of under nutrition (< median 7 2 s.d. of NCHS weight for age) is higher (53.1%) in boys than in girls (39.5%). The extent of stunting was higher (42.7%) among adolescents belonging to the Scheduled Caste community. In the case of girls, the extent of underweight was considerably less in each age group than their male counterparts. About 70% of adolescents consumed more than 70% of RDA for energy. The intakes of micronutrients such as vitamin A and riboflavin were woefully inadequate. The extent of under nutrition was high among adolescents and was higher among boys than girls. Adolescent girls in the rural areas could be at greater risk of nutritional stress because of early marriage and early conception before completion of their physical growth in eight states (provinces) of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu of India.