Malnutrition has long been one of India’s major developmental challenges. In recent years, the country has taken significant, though by no means adequate, steps to ensure food for vulnerable sections of its population. At the same time, a large section of the country’s young population is now overweight and obese, and this group is swelling. A UNICEF report, released last week, has cited National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data to flag an alarming surge in obesity among children and adolescents between 2006 and 2021. What is particularly worrying is that the number of overweight children below the age of five has more than doubled in these 15 years. India has already broken into the top five countries in terms of adult obesity in the past few years. And, if the predictions of the UNICEF report hold true, the country will account for 11 per cent of the global obesity burden by 2030.
Food preferences are as determined by culture, caste, and gender as by economics. The UNICEF report has also flagged that the nutrition deficits among children are often carryovers of the poor dietary practices of their mothers. “Social and gender norms whereby adolescent girls and women often eat least and last, exacerbate the problem,” it points out. According to the NFHS-5, 36 per cent of children under five are stunted, and a meagre 11 per cent who are breastfed between the ages of 6 months and 23 months receive an adequate diet. Fifty-seven per cent of women in the 15-49 age group are anaemic.
At the same time, ultra-processed foods, usually loaded with unhealthy fats and high in sugar and salt, are increasingly replacing fruits, vegetables, and traditional diets. “Aggressive and targeted marketing campaigns, along with easy availability, are influencing food choices for children and adolescents,” the report points out. The Economic Survey 2024-25 too flagged the growing sales of ultra processed. This problem too has a cultural dimension. A large section of the country’s youth is far more sedentary than it used to be, and unhealthy snacking is a common behaviour among them. It would also not be far-fetched to say that most parents today, whose adolescence or early adulthood coincided with the initial years of liberalisation, have passed on the fast-food culture of their youth to their children – or in any case, they do not restrain the youth from chomping on chips or guzzling soft drinks.
In other words, while a large section of India’s population continues to experience a calorie deficit, a growing number of people get a calorie overdose – both groups do not receive enough nutrition.
The government, hearteningly, is aware of the problem. Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked of the obesity challenge in his Independence Day address this year. From the Fit India Movement and Eat Right India campaign to POSHAN Abhiyaan 2.0, Saksham Anganwadi and other school-based nutrition and wellness programmes, the country has taken several steps to nudge youngsters towards healthy dietary practices. Guidance to place sugar and oil boards in schools and offices has also been introduced.
However, the predominant idea among government projects is that the nutrition deficit is a problem of poverty. Policy interventions continue to focus on tracking severe and acute malnutrition cases, dispensing iron and folic acid tablets and providing take home rations. These are important public health interventions. But the UNICEF report – and other studies – frame a different challenge: Identifying undernutrition as a public health problem that may impact different classes of people in different ways. It requires removing food insecurity and addressing calorie deficits while also ensuring that children are given balanced meals that include carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, fruits and vegetables.
At the same time, without attenuating the importance of childhood and maternal nutrition, the conversation needs to move towards healthy diets and lifestyles, for all – senior citizens, women outside reproductive age, men. Nudging people to change their food choices should be part of programmes to tackle the country’s growing burden of communicable diseases, many of which are lifestyle-related — diabetes, heart ailments, and hypertension. Recent government initiatives notwithstanding, the country still needs to invest much more in physical fitness. Cycles have either gone out of vogue in most Indian cities or are a niche commodity; footpaths are increasingly giving way to shopping complexes or getting encroached, and there are few playgrounds where children can play.
“India risks reversing hard-won gains in child health and locking millions into a lifetime of poor health,” the UNICEF report points out. But it doesn’t ignore the brighter side of the picture. India has the policies; it needs to tweak them, many of them significantly. And, yes, it can tackle the obesity problem, without over-reliance on expensive slimming medications.
Till next time,
Stay well
Kaushik Das Gupta
A large section of the country’s youth is far more sedentary than it used to be, and unhealthy snacking is a common behaviour among them. (Representational image/File) 
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