Too sweet to handle! Number of diabetic Indians to cross 10 crore in 15 years

While on one side India has done quite well in diminishing stunting in the past 10 years, the number of overweight and diabetic people in the country is alarming, says the Global Nutrition Report, 2016.

Talking of the progress in curbing malnutrition amongst kids, even though India houses one-third of the world's 159 million stunted children aged below five years, the number of such children in India has seen a sharp decline, from 48% in 2006 to 38.7% in 2014.

"There is real hope that India can become a major part of the solution (to malnutrition). It almost doubled the rate of stunting reduction in the past 10 years compared with the previous decade," says the report.

However, when it comes to the number of overweight and especially obese children, there is a need for urgent attention here, given that the prevalence of adult diabetes in India was recorded at 9.5% last year, as against a global average of 9%.

As per WHO estimates, the number of diabetic Indians doubled from 32 million in 2000 to 63 million in 2013, while in coming 15 years, this number would cross the 10 crore mark.

"India is in double jeopardy. It always had under nutrition, and (now) there is ever growing threat of over nutrition and diabetes. Public health policies must be strengthened to fight both, particularly the latter," said Dr Anoop Misra, chairman, Fortis C-DOC.

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