By RJ Whitehead, 25-Jan-2013
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A countrywide screening programme on diabetes trends in India makes for startling reading, no least for those in the south who live in slums. Rightly concerned about the prevalence of diabetes in India, the country’s health ministry has been closely following the disease among the population, and the latest study was conducted under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVD and Stroke (NPCDCS).
Its figures highlight two highly unexpected and alarming trends. The first is that the south, which has traditionally and positively led the country in most health indices, now also leads the way in the prevalence of diabetes. The second trend is that the disease has seen a dramatic increase among slum dwellers and the poor.
Rich man's disease
Diabetes is traditionally considered by Indians to be a rich man’s disease, and medical experts blame increasingly poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles for the rise of diabetes among the urban poor.
Indeed, the latest findings suggest that one in every four people living in the urban slums of Chennai suffer from diabetes—a figure over three times higher than the national average of around 7%.
"It is a false belief that only those eating burgers and pizzas can get obese and develop diabetes. High consumption of fried items such as kachori, samosa and gulab jamun can also led to the onset of diabetes," Dr H P S Sachdev, senior consultant pediatrics at Sitaram Institute of Science and Research, told Times of India this week
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