Rickets, a common nutritional disorder, is usually considered to be due to vitamin D deficiency. However, in the last few decades many studies have shown that in tropical countries, with abundance of sunshine, calcium deficiency may play a more important role in the causation of rickets. Studies from adults in India have also shown that calcium intake of our population is much below the recommended allowance. The calcium deficiency gets compounded by the high level of phytates in the conventional vegetarian diet consumed by the majority of the population. There are few studies on children in India / other Asian countries on assessment of dietary calcium intake.