Should our lawmakers set an example, to change eating culture?

Indian lawmakers are divided over the goods and services tax but their stand on potential fat taxes on the lines of what is being imposed in parts of the west — where obesity is seen as an alarming pandemic — may go the same way. Would most of them really want to legislate measures such as regulatory control and taxation on fatty comestibles and formulate urban design laws to force people to engage in more physical activity, as is being advocated by health professionals? After all, being rotund has traditionally not been considered abad thing in this part of the world, although the super-slim contours of a few Bollywood actors may give a different impression.

That is why in the lexicon of Indian English, the word ‘healthy’ (properly mispronounced) remains an accepted synonym for very generously proportioned individuals, and thin is equated with being weak.

Even the popular iconography of India remains by and (very) large in favour of decidedly rounded personalities. No wonder so many in public life also sport similarly expansive silhouettes. And as their gut instinct is usually spot on about popular perceptions, it is not surprising that a rather corpulent lawmaker recently responded with heavy sarcasm on the matter of members of Parliament giving up the subsidies on their canteen fare.