{"id":110904,"date":"2026-07-01T18:05:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=110904"},"modified":"2026-07-01T18:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:35:54","slug":"addressing-adolescent-malnutrition-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/addressing-adolescent-malnutrition-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing Adolescent Malnutrition in India, Current Status, Causes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Why in news<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The recently released NFHS-6 (2023-24) highlights a worrying rise in obesity and lifestyle-related diseases in India.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Current Status of Adolescent Malnutrition in India\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adolescence is a critical stage for physical and cognitive development, making nutrition interventions during this period essential for achieving the goals of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/viksit-bharat-2047\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Viksit Bharat<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>SDG-2 (Zero Hunger)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>SDG-3 (Good Health and Well-being). <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is facing a <\/span><b>double burden of malnutrition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where <\/span><b>undernutrition coexists with rising overweight and obesity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to NFHS-6 (2023-24), <\/span><b>obesity among women (15-49 years) increased from 24% to 30.7%, while among men it rose from 22.9% to 27.3%.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>High blood sugar among men (15+ years) increased<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from 15.6% to 20.9%, and among women from 13.5% to 17.8%, indicating growing metabolic disorders.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <\/span><b>Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), 2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>27.4% of Indian adolescents are stunted<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, reflecting persistent nutritional deficiencies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is witnessing the <\/span><b>\u2018thin-fat\u2019 phenotype<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where many <\/span><b>children appear lean but carry excess body fat <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and face a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around 35% of stunted children under five already exhibit adult-level triglycerides, highlighting early metabolic risk.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>2025 Lancet study projects that by 2050, India will have 21.8 crore overweight men and 23.1 crore overweight women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with the fastest rise expected among the 15-24 years age group.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Causes of Adolescent Malnutrition in India\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s growing burden of adolescent malnutrition is driven by changing dietary patterns, unhealthy lifestyles and inadequate nutrition awareness.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Poor Dietary Diversity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Studies among Delhi school adolescents show <\/span><b>inadequate intake of milk, dairy products, green leafy vegetables and fruits, while cereal-dominated diets remain common.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rising Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: According to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/world-health-organisation\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>World Health Organization (WHO)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) in India is increasing by over 13.7% annually<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, replacing healthier traditional diets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Excess Sugar Intake<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: High consumption of free sugar during adolescence increases the long-term risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Physical Inactivity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Sedentary lifestyles, excessive screen time and declining participation in sports contribute to obesity and metabolic disorders.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Urban Lifestyle Changes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Processed diets, stress and reduced physical activity, once confined to cities, are now rapidly spreading to rural India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Nutrition Transition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Shift from traditional balanced diets to calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods has increased the burden of both undernutrition and obesity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Lack of Nutrition Literacy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Limited awareness about balanced diets, food labels, portion sizes and hidden sugar content encourages unhealthy food choices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Inadequate Healthy Food Environment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Easy availability of HFSS foods and sugary beverages in and around schools promotes unhealthy eating habits.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Role of Schools in Addressing Adolescent Malnutrition in India\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schools are the most effective platform for preventing malnutrition by promoting healthy eating habits and active lifestyles during adolescence.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Improve Mid-Day Meals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Provide balanced meals with adequate proteins, fruits, vegetables and micronutrients instead of cereal-heavy diets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Promote Healthy School Canteens<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Replace HFSS foods and sugary beverages with nutritious, locally available food options.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Develop Nutrition Literacy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Teach students to prepare balanced plates, read food labels, understand portion sizes and identify hidden sugars.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Organise Food Demonstrations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Conduct practical sessions to encourage healthy cooking and informed food choices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Promote Fruits and Vegetables<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Introduce fruit breaks, school gardens and seasonal local produce in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, which recommend half the plate should consist of fruits and vegetables.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Discourage Sugary Foods<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Display \u201csugar boards\u201d showing hidden sugar content in popular beverages and processed foods while discouraging their consumption.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Create UPF-Free School Zones<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Restrict the sale and promotion of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) and HFSS foods within and around schools.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ensure Daily Physical Activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Make sports and structured physical activity compulsory rather than optional to tackle sedentary lifestyles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Adopt Skill-Based Nutrition Education<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Move beyond textbook learning by teaching food label reading, healthy cooking, recognising food marketing tactics and making informed dietary choices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Promote Continuous Behavioural Change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Reinforce healthy habits through regular awareness activities rather than one-time campaigns.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Transform Schools into Health-Promoting Institutions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Integrate nutrition, physical activity and healthy food environments to reduce future burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Government Initiatives<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Government of India has launched several policy, nutrition and awareness initiatives to improve adolescent nutrition and create healthier food environments.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/poshan-abhiyaan\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>POSHAN Abhiyaan<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Promotes a life-cycle approach to improve nutritional outcomes through convergence, behavioural change and technology-driven monitoring.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>PM POSHAN (Mid-Day Meal) Scheme<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Provides nutritious cooked meals in schools to improve nutritional status, reduce classroom hunger and encourage school attendance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Focuses on improving nutrition among children, adolescent girls and women through supplementary nutrition and health services.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Aims to reduce anaemia among children, adolescents and women through iron-folic acid supplementation, deworming and behaviour change.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Addresses adolescent health through nutrition counselling, mental health support, reproductive health education and healthy lifestyle promotion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Eat Right India Campaign (FSSAI)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Encourages healthy eating habits, safe food practices and consumer awareness through schools and communities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 (ICMR-NIN)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Recommend balanced diets, including making fruits and vegetables occupy nearly half of the plate by volume while reducing sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Let\u2019s Fix Our Food (LFOF) Initiative<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Led by ICMR-NIN, it promotes healthier food environments through nutrition literacy, policy recommendations, food-label reading kits, regulation of HFSS food advertising and taxation of unhealthy beverages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>School Health and Wellness Programme (Ayushman Bharat)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Integrates nutrition education, physical activity, mental health and healthy lifestyle promotion within schools.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Challenges<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite increasing awareness, several institutional and systemic challenges continue to hinder efforts to improve adolescent nutrition in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Effective Policy Implementation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Nutrition and school health programmes often suffer from uneven implementation, weak monitoring and poor convergence among health, education and nutrition departments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Double Burden of Malnutrition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Simultaneous prevalence of undernutrition among children and rising obesity among adolescents complicates policy design and programme delivery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>School Food Environment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Many schools continue to have unhealthy canteens and easy availability of HFSS foods and sugary beverages, weakening healthy eating habits.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Weak Nutrition Education<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Nutrition education remains largely theoretical, with limited focus on practical life skills such as reading food labels, understanding portion sizes and making healthy food choices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Inadequate Physical Activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Sports and structured physical activity are often treated as optional rather than essential components of school education.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Limited Behavioural Change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: One-time awareness campaigns have limited impact, whereas sustained reinforcement is needed to convert nutrition knowledge into lifelong healthy practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rapid Commercialisation of Food<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Aggressive marketing and advertising of HFSS foods and Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs), particularly among children and adolescents, encourage unhealthy consumption patterns.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rising Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Increasing adolescent obesity is leading to early-onset Type-2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, imposing a growing healthcare burden.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rural Spread of Lifestyle Diseases<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Sedentary behaviour, processed diets and obesity are no longer confined to urban areas but are increasingly affecting rural populations as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Future Public Health Burden<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Without timely interventions during adolescence, India faces rising healthcare expenditure and reduced human capital due to increasing nutrition-related diseases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Way Forward<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Adopt a Life-Cycle Approach<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Integrate nutrition interventions from adolescence into reproductive health and adult wellness to break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Target High-Risk Groups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Focus on vulnerable adolescents, especially girls, rural populations and economically weaker sections through targeted nutrition support.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Strengthen Growth Monitoring<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Conduct regular BMI screening, nutrition assessment and early detection of obesity, anaemia and other deficiencies in schools.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Build Health-Promoting Schools<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Institutionalise comprehensive school health policies that integrate nutrition, mental health, hygiene and physical fitness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Improve Food Regulation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Strengthen front-of-pack food labelling and enforce stricter standards on the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods to children.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Promote Local and Nutritious Foods<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Encourage the consumption of traditional, locally available and diverse foods to improve dietary diversity and reduce dependence on processed foods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Enhance Research and Data Systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Strengthen nutrition surveillance and periodic assessments to enable evidence-based policymaking and timely interventions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Increase Community Participation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Engage parents, teachers, local bodies and civil society to create supportive environments for healthy dietary and lifestyle practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Invest in Preventive Healthcare<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Shift policy focus from treating lifestyle diseases to preventing them through early nutrition interventions during adolescence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Build a Healthy Demographic Dividend<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Prioritise adolescent nutrition as an investment in India\u2019s future workforce, productivity and long-term human capital development.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addressing adolescent malnutrition in India covers NFHS-6 findings, causes, challenges, government initiatives, school role, and strategies for better nutrition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":110906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[8438],"class_list":{"0":"post-110904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-addressing-adolescent-malnutrition-in-india","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110907,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110904\/revisions\/110907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}