Is India Shouldering a Double Burden of Malnutrition?

In India, malnutrition remains a silent emergency. Though the Government of India has made significant progress in the past several years, however, the rates of overweight and obesity are steadily increasing. This article attempts to examine the prevalence of double burden of undernutrition and overnutrition in different regions of India, and also identify the major determinants of the coexistence of double burden of malnutrition using the data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III, 2005-06). The north, south, west and north-east zones experience the double burden of both underweight and obesity. The results of the multivariate logistic regression analyses show that age of the women, religion, place of residence, women's education, wealth index and lifestyle indicators are significantly associated with both underweight and obesity. There is a need for special public health programmes that are able to address both simultaneously.