Disaster waiting to happen

For long, India has been a land of stark contradictions, a country of multitudes - huts and mansions together where oppressed and oppressor live simultaneously.

The most startling example is perhaps the fact that while 44% of children in India suffer from malnutrition, obesity is a problem gaining rapid momentum - an indestructible juggernaut among the masses of the emerging middle and upper classes.

It has claimed the lives of countless due to underlying diseases to which it acts as a catalyst.

This health crisis can be attributed to the rise of an era of cheap and easily available junk food and sugary drinks.

This has resulted in a huge wave among the active workforce and youth, because diseases like hypertension, which are caused primarily due to morbid obesity, significantly hamper the full capacity realisation of individuals. Although the Indian taxation system is considered to be ‘just’, essential but necessary commodities, such as sanitary napkins, were taxed while some food items were rated at 5%. Therefore, the need of the hour is for the government to place a prohibitive tax on junk foods and sugary drinks, which prevent consumption of currently cheap and easily available goods which have resulted in a highly complex health crisis.

It is the role of the state to undertake this.