One of the major concerns of development in India, since independence, has been the status of food security of its people. This paper discusses the nutritional outcome indicators as well as the major non- food factors (safe drinking water and sanitation) that influence the status of food absorption of rural and urban population of Tamil Nadu and India over three decades using NFHS and Census data. The results clearly pointed out that vast majority of women and children in Tamil Nadu and India continue to suffer from problems of nutrition. As regards the non-food factors that have a bearing on nutritional outcome, while access to safe drinking water has improved in Tamil Nadu and India, access to toilets remain a huge problem. While food security is a function of availability, access and absorption of food, our analysis clearly highlights the need to enhance public investment in provisioning of toilets.