Middle Class India's Child Weight MANAGEMENT CRISIS

Unchecked junk foods consumption, sedentary lifestyles, lack of outdoor physical activity and tech addiction are pushing an entire generation of urban middle class children to pile on kilos that seriously damage health and well-being

- KIRAN BALIMANE & CYNTHIA JOHN

A deadly paradox signalling deep social inequality and pervasive injustice is looming over Indian society. On the one hand, several authoritative studies of United Nations agencies including Unicef India, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and WHO (World Health Organisation) indicate that 19 percent of contemporary India's 130 million children under age five are severely malnourished and 35.5 percent of them are in danger of stunting and brain damage because of poor nutrition.

On the other hand, several studies have been warning that childhood obesity is steadily rising within India's 400 million-strong 'fast expanding' middle class. A new study published in the globally renowned UK-based Lancet on March 4 — World Obesity Day — indicates that India is confronted with a childhood obesity epidemic. According to the 'Global Burden of Disease Study BMI Collaborations', an estimated 12.5 million children (7.3 million boys and 5.2 million girls) aged between five-19 years in India are grossly overweight, cf. 0.4 million in 1990. The study predicts that by 2050, India will host the second largest number of obese children in the five-14 years age group (30 million) and the highest number of obese young people in the 15-24 age group (39.6 million).

These alarming statistics have sent shock waves within the country's productive middle class as also parents, educators and even somnolent government establishment. In a rare health-centric address to the nation on World Health Day (April 7), Prime Minister Narendra Modi described obesity as a "silent epidemic" and exhorted citizens to "get fit, eat mindfully, and work together to build an obesity-free India", because obesity is the first manifestation of several life-threatening diseases.

A recent study published in the