How schools can tackle adolescent malnutrition

A s schools across the country reopened after summer vacation, classrooms were filled once again with the energy, aspirations and anxieties of millions of adolescents. Yet hidden behind their growing ambitions lies a silent public health emergency — adolescent malnutrition . The recently released NFHS-6 (2023-24) findings are stark. Obesity among women aged 15-49 years has risen from 24% to 30.7%, and among men from 22.9% to 27.3%. High blood sugar among men aged 15 and above jumped from 15.6% to 20.9%, and among women from 13.5% to 17.8%. What is most alarming is that lifestyle changes once associated with cities and affluent communities such as sedentary behaviour, processed diets, stress and rising obesity, are now affecting rural populations too. India faces a double burden: undernutrition among children and surging obesity among adults, with obesity driving diabetes, heart disease and stroke. These crises do not begin in adulthood. Their roots lie in adolescence, making schools the most critical setting for prevention.