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Modi's sweet talk on diabetes is poisonous for India

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Dinesh C Sharma
Dinesh C SharmaApr 05, 2016 | 09:53

Modi's sweet talk on diabetes is poisonous for India

The World Health Day will be observed on April 7 with the theme "Beat Diabetes".

India has the second largest number of people suffering from diabetes - some 65 million - next only to China. Talking about diabetes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly broadcast last week asked citizens to defeat it by modifying their lifestyles.

Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases have a common set of risk factors, and among them unhealthy food, lack of physical activity and tobacco are major ones. The prime minister emphasised on importance of physical activity and asked people to take to yoga and other forms of exercise like walking and jogging in order to beat diabetes.

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Health advocates need to appreciate such an important message coming from the country's top leadership. However, the exclusion of other key risk factors such as unhealthy food from the PM's exhortation is conspicuous and should worry us.

The prime minister's thoughts on diabetes reflect the flawed policy approach of the government towards lifestyle diseases.

The government is taking a rather simplistic approach - diabetes is a lifestyle disease, so it is the responsibility of citizens to take care of their lifestyles to prevent onset of diabetes.

Surely diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are lifestyle ailments and people ought to look after themselves, but we also need to examine factors that are making our lifestyles conducive to these ailments. Such an analysis would show that our lifestyles are changing in response to changing environment.

For instance, "food environment" around us is a key factor that encourages us to consume unhealthy foods. Lack of proper walking and cycling paths makes people to drive or be physically inactive. That's why our public policies should try to reduce risk factors like unhealthy food and physical inactivity. But, in reality, government policies are subsidising these very risk factors.

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The World Health Day will be observed on April 7 with the theme "Beat Diabetes".

Market research data shows that sugar intake of Indians has been going up in the past decade. Extra sugar is being consumed in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages - aerated drinks, fruit drinks, energy and vitamin water drinks, bottled lassi and so on.

The consumption of sugary beverages is increasing by 13 per cent annually since 1998. The irony is that manufacturers of such products get subsidies because any product that contains sugar is considered a processed food which qualifies for tax-breaks and other doles.

Mega food processing parks, such as the one run by Patanjali Food and Herbal, have been subsidised to the tune of Rs 50 crore each by the ministry of food processing industries. These companies are producing food items high in salt, sugar and fat content. Sugar itself is subsidised at every stage - from production to exports.

Doctors consider white or polished rice bad for health, but milling units that polish rice get financial assistance from the government. Tobacco is another risk factor that gets huge government support.

All this means that on one hand, the government is telling people to remain healthy and on the other hand it is subsidising causative agents of ill health. Merely telling people to exercise to prevent diabetes thus amounts to paying lip sympathy.

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Last updated: April 05, 2016 | 12:32
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