Stories
Experts Urge Junk Food Tax, Affordable Healthy Options to Combat India's Obesity Crisis
- •Experts at a NITI Aayog consultation recommend taxing junk food and making healthy food more affordable to tackle India's rising obesity burden.
- •Obesity prevention strategies should span from pregnancy through schools, workplaces, and community health workers, according to experts.
- •National Family Health Survey-6 data shows a significant increase in overweight/obesity among Indian women (30.7%) and men (27.3%) aged 15-49.
- •The consultation, chaired by Dr. M. Srinivas, involved experts from AIIMS, ICMR, WHO, UNICEF, and other key organizations to develop actionable strategies.
- •Recommendations include integrating obesity prevention into existing health programs, training ASHAs and Anganwadi workers, and focusing on school-based interventions.
Key Questions Answered
Experts at a NITI Aayog consultation recommended making healthy food more affordable, implementing higher taxes on junk food, integrating obesity prevention into existing national health programmes, training grassroots healthcare workers like ASHAs, and targeting interventions from pregnancy through schools and workplaces.
According to the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6) for 2023-24, 30.7% of women aged 15 to 49 were overweight or obese, up from 24% in NFHS-5, while the figure for men rose from 22.9% to 27.3%. Additionally, adults with high blood sugar or on medication for it increased from 13.5% to 17.8% among women and from 15.6% to 20.9% among men.
India does not yet have official national guidelines on the prevention and management of obesity, though they are currently being drafted. In the absence of official domestic guidelines, non-government frameworks such as the Lancet Commission's obesity guidelines are widely used across the country.
