The Economic Survey of India 2023-24, tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in both houses of Parliament on Monday, July 22, the first day of the Budget Session, has pointed out that improving the quality of health of India’s young population, is crucial.
Citing the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) latest dietary guidelines, published in April this year, it notes the fact that 56.4% of the total the total disease burden in India is due to unhealthy diets. The ICMR report observes that the upsurge in the consumption of highly processed foods, laden with sugars and fat, coupled with reduced physical activity and limited access to diverse foods, exacerbate micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity problems.
Click here to download Economic Survey 2023-24
The ICMR had released 17 dietary guidelines, and had said, “a significant proportion of premature deaths can be averted by following a healthy lifestyle.”
Micronutrient deficiency, a lurking urban malady
Experts have been sounding the alarm bell over unhealthy diets for several years now, especially in light of the rise in the availability of processed and ultra-processed foods, the lax attitude of the government when it comes to warning labels on food, and the simultaneous spike in food inflation, leading to eating healthy becoming increasingly expensive, and therefore, extremely difficult for many sections of society.
Also Read: Economic Survey 2023-24 updates
Many doctors have warned that India is now tackling a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In fact a recent study revealed that the prevalence of NCDs in India has tripled since 1995. As India’s former Health Secretary K. Sujatha Rao wrote recently, NCDs have to be managed over a lifetime necessitating a steady, routinised, system of care. It is now estimated that over 100 million people in the country may have diabetes, one of the most common NCDs.
Obesity crisis
The Economic Survey Report also highlighted the growing obesity problem: it said, estimates show that the adult obesity rate in India has more than tripled, and the annual rise in children’s is the steepest in the world for India, behind Vietnam and Namibia, according to the World Obesity Federation. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) data bears this out, it says: as per the numbers, the percentage of men facing obesity in the age bracket 18-69 has increased to 22.9% in NFHS 5 from 18.9% in NFHS 4 (2015-16). For women, it has increased from 20.6% to 24%. In children too, it presents an alarming picture: the rate of overweight children went up from 2.1% in NFHS 4 to 3.4%
The Economic Survey notes that at the all-India level, the incidence of obesity, as per NFHS5, is significantly higher in urban India than in rural India (29.8% vs. 19.3% for men and 33.2% vs. 19.7% for women). Combined with an ageing population in some states, obesity presents a concerning situation and preventive measures must be taken to enable citizens to have a healthier lifestyle, it says.
Pandemic and sedentary lifestyles
It points out however, that “the NFHS-5 Survey overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, with restrictions on outside activities and lockdowns, sedentary lifestyles may have become more entrenched, resulting in the obesity proportion going up much more in NFHS-5. If the trend reverses in NFHS-6, it will be a healthy sign.”
Lack of sufficient physical exercise is also something that has doctors and healthcare experts worried: a recent Lancet study revealed that almost 50% of adults in India engaged in insufficient levels of physical activity in 2022l. Far more women in India (57%) were found to be insufficiently physically active, compared to men (42%), the study found.
The Economic Survey noted the impacts nutrition and therefore health, could have on employment: “For India’s working-age population to be gainfully employed, they need skills and good health. Social media, screen time, sedentary habits, and unhealthy food are a lethal mix that can undermine public health and productivity and diminish India’s economic potential,” it said.
‘Private sector substantially to blame’
It cast some of the blame on the private sector -- calling its contribution to “this toxic mix of habits” substantial. “India’s traditional lifestyle, food and recipes have shown how to live healthily and in harmony with nature and the environment for centuries. It makes commercial sense for Indian businesses to learn about and embrace them, for they have a global market waiting to be led rather than tapped.”
It also pointed to what it called a ‘panoply of policies -- by national and sub-national governments -- working at cross-purposes with each other, and said this was hurting not only farmers’ interests but also polluting the environment and undermining people’s health due to insufficient fibre and protein.
Looking forward, the Economic Survey says, two trends would be decisive for the health and disease profile of the country in the near future. Firstly, the government and the public at large need to accord healthy eating and mental health the attention they deserve. Secondly, public health being a state subject, state and local level governance remain pivotal for the national big-ticket programmes to reach the last mile through the ‘path of least resistance’.
If India needs to reap the gains of its demographic dividend, the Economic Survery cautions, it is critical that its population’s health parameters transition towards a balanced and diverse diet.
