Adolescent Years Are India’s ‘Second Window of Growth,’ Say Experts — Call for Overhaul of Food and Nutrition Policies
56 per cent of adolescent girls are anaemic and nearly one in four adolescents is under- or overweight
New Delhi, Oct 15 India must treat adolescence as its “second window of growth” and invest urgently in nutrition, education and healthy food systems to avert a future health and productivity crisis, experts said at the 3rd International Conference on Public Health and Nutrition (ICPHN 2025), organised by Sukarya in New Delhi.
Sukarya aimed to provide a platform where best minds can come together, where not only knowledge can be shared but solutions can be provided.
Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Chancellor of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), said failure to address adolescent nutrition would “lock in intergenerational poverty and poor health outcomes.”
“Adolescence offers a biological and social opportunity to reset health trajectories. The choices young people make now — what they eat, how active they are — will decide India’s disease burden in 2047,” he said, calling for alignment between food, agriculture and education policies and stronger regulation of ultra-processed and high-sugar foods.
Citing NFHS-5 data showing that 56 per cent of adolescent girls are anaemic and nearly one in four adolescents is under- or overweight, Reddy warned that the “double burden” of malnutrition could undermine India’s demographic dividend. “Policy must make the healthy choice the easy choice,” he added.
Dr. Deepika Nayar, Senior Health, Nutrition and Population Specialist at the World Bank, said adolescent health is both a moral and economic imperative.
“Every dollar invested in adolescent health yields a tenfold return through higher productivity and lower disease burden,” she said. “We must scale up proven initiatives like WIFS and RKSK, and integrate digital tools and community platforms for real-time nutrition monitoring.”
From the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Dr. Supreet Kaur stressed that adolescent nutrition cannot be treated in isolation from broader food-system reforms.
“One in five deaths globally is linked to poor diets. We need integrated strategies — clear food labelling, waste reduction, and fiscal incentives for nutritious produce — to reshape consumption behaviour,” she noted.
Ms. Preetu Mishra, Nutrition Specialist at UNICEF India, described India’s adolescents as facing a “triple burden” of undernutrition, over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.
“Childhood obesity has already overtaken underweight globally. Without policy action, we risk a generation suffering both stunting and lifestyle diseases,” she said, urging front-of-pack labels, taxation of high-fat, salt and sugar foods, and youth-led nutrition literacy programmes.
Dr. Satvinder Kaur, Associate Professor at UCSI University, Malaysia, offered a regional lens.
“Malaysian adolescents eat enough protein but mostly from fried or processed foods. Promoting diverse protein sources — eggs, fish, soy and tempeh — backed by school initiatives and sugar taxes, has shown encouraging results,” she said, suggesting India could adapt similar models.
Dr. Shweta Khandelwal, Vice President, Social and Economic Empowerment at IPE Global, emphasised that adolescent nutrition must begin long before pregnancy.
“With 11 per cent of births in India still among adolescents, pre-conception care and awareness must be embedded in every maternal-health programme. We need to move from seeing youth as beneficiaries to engaging them as co-creators of health solutions,” she said.
Bringing the data perspective, Dr. Suman Chakrabarti, Associate Research Fellow at IFPRI, said recent national data show plateauing height trends and rising obesity among Indian adolescents.
“Adolescents are not growing taller but wider — a worrying signal of hidden hunger and excess calories,” he said. “Updated, age- and gender-disaggregated data are critical for effective targeting.”
Conference Chair Dr. Sujeet Ranjan, CEO of United Way Delhi, said,
“No single sector can solve this. We need convergence — health, education, agriculture and urban policy must talk to each other. Only then can adolescent health become a national mission.”
Summing up the deliberations, Ms. Meera Satpathy, Founder & Chairperson of Sukarya, said this year, the focus shifts to “Adolescent Health- Advancing well- being and nutrition,” bringing together global and local partners to safeguard the health, rights, and potential of young people of India.
Through our RMCHN, Adolescent Health, and Gender Equality programs, we will scale our proven models, bringing care, awareness, and empowerment where they are needed the most. We will integrate nutrition, gender equality, and digital innovation into every program, using technology so we can scale faster, measure better, and bridge the digital divide. She emphasised that Sukarya’s guiding belief is “Begin from home and Begin when Young.”
We look forward to build a nation where every adolescent grows with nourishment learns with confidence, leads with courage and lives with dignity.
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