Prevelance of Obesity in Indian Child: A National Scenario

Obesity in children is caused by an unhealthy diet, a lack of exercise, environmental factors, and genetics. It is a significant public health issue that is spreading around the world as an epidemic, and it is the most common metabolic syndrome in children. The prevalence rate of childhood obesity is rising rapidly because of the prevalent use of processed foods, junk foods, and other foods that, unfortunately, do not have any positive health effects on the bodies of children. The results of the previous studies show that the prevalence of obesity has tripled since 1975, with almost 41 million youngsters becoming overweight or obese in 2016. Additionally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is being noted to be somewhere between 5.74 percent and 8.82 percent in school aged children in India. Parents, educators, and peers must all take responsibility for addressing this difficult problem. Although the government has developed policies and guidelines to combat the rapid rise in overweight and obesity through nutrition education programmes, only a limited number of these programmes have been implemented and should be expanded at the family, school, public, state, and local levels. Physical activities should be encouraged as well, because "today's healthy child will grow up to be tomorrow's healthy adult."