Introduction: As compared to developed western world, population specific normative reference data on body mass index (BMI) of Indian children are scarce. In view of this, we attempted to establish age and gender specific percentiles for BMI of children hailing from north-western parts of India, so as to diagnose children with obesity or under nutrition.

Methods: Body weight and height were cross-sectionally measured amongst 2098 (Male: 1278, Female: 820) normal, healthy children aged 2 to 14 years of North-western Indian origin representing mixed socio-economic strata, following standardized anthropometric techniques in the Growth Laboratory and Growth Clinic of the department of Pediatrics, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Age and gender specific BMI was calculated by dividing weight (kg) by square of height (m2). Mean±SD and percentiles (3rd, 5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th, and 97th) were calculated after applying Healy’s correction.

Results: Body mass index increased from 15.2±2.08 kg/m2 to 15.58±2.99 kg/m2 in males and from 15.3±1.6 kg/m2 to 16.8±1.7 kg/m2 in females, from 2 to 14 years. Gender differences in general, remained statistically non-significant. As compared to their Indian and western counterparts, our study children possessed lower BMI, that may be attributed to their affiliation to different environmental, ethnic/racial stocks.

Conclusions: Children having BMI for age more than 85th and 95th percentile should be treated as cases of overweight and obesity respectively while, BMI less than 5th percentile be considered as thinness.