Tony Blair Institute proposes 4-pronged strategy to tackle India's obesity problem

UK based Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has suggested a four-pronged strategy to fight the growing burden of obesity in India.

The proposals constitute the essence of the report ‘Building on Success to Secure India’s Future Health’ published by TBI today.

The suggestion is to strengthen the country’s food-environment regulation, scale up of digital risk identification, incentivising healthy living and a plan for affordable anti-obesity medicines (AOM) to tackle the problem.

The report points out that almost one in four adults are now considered obese and concerning trends are emerging among children too. This problem is set to worsen over the coming decades, with nearly one-third of the country’s population on course to have obesity by 2050, driven primarily by sedentary lifestyles, high-calorie diets and genetic susceptibility.

According to the report, obesity is no longer a future concern but an epidemic that is driving India’s growing burden of preventable disease, affecting not only the health of the country but its economic prosperity. It states that obesity is estimated to cost the country’s health system about $2.4 billion annually and weigh down its economic productivity by an estimated $28.9 billion annually, or about 1 per cent of GDP.

Addressing a round table discussion organized as part of the report launch Dr Anoop Misra, Chairman,  Fortis CDOC Hospital for Diabetes and Allied Sciences said that obesity in Indians behaves differently — it is more inflammatory and metabolically disruptive. “Even at lower BMI, Indians develop high blood sugar much earlier. The pattern of fat deposition is also distinct, with excess abdominal and visceral fat emerging as the most dangerous form. This abdominal adiposity drives early diabetes, heart disease, and other metabolic illnesses. Addressing this unique, high-risk obesity phenotype is essential for India’s future health", he said.

The strategy proposed in the report intends to reduce consumption of high-fat, sugar, and salt products through better food-environment regulation. Similarly, it want to scale digital risk identification through platforms such as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and e-Sanjeevani. Digital rewards to incentivise healthy living linked to the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is the third proposal. The fourth suggestion is to prepare a plan for affordable anti-obesity medicines.