文档介绍：Double burden of malnutrition in developing countries 99
The double burden of
malnutrition in India
P. Ramachandran, Director, Nutrition Foundation of India, New Delhi
INTRODUCTION
India is a vast and varied subcontinent. Covering percent of the global landmass, it
supports more than one-sixth of the world’s population. In 2001, India’s population had
reached 1 028 million people, living in 220 million households in 35 states and union
territories (Map). As a developing country with high population density, ever since Indian
independence, planners in India have recognized the importance of planned growth of the
economy with emphasis on human resource development. Policy-makers recognize that
optimal nutrition and health are prerequisites for human development. Article 47 of the
Constitution of India states that “the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and
standard of living of its people and improvement in public health among its primary
duties”. Over the last five decades, essive five-year plans have lain down policies and
multisectoral strategies bat nutrition-related public health problems and improve the
nutritional and health status of the population.
Currently, the country is undergoing a rapid socio-economic, demographic, nutritional
and health transition. Although India has not yet e the problems of poverty,
undernutrition municable diseases, it is increasingly facing additional challenges
related to the affluence that results from industrialization, urbanization and economic
betterment. Over the last two decades, overnutrition and obesity have emerged as public
health problems; there have been increases in the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular
disease (CVD), especially in urban areas. The magnitude of these problems varies among
states and socio-economic strata and between urban and rural areas, and it is a matter of
concern that these diseases occur a decade earlier in India than elsewhere and that they