Socio-economic Structure and Personal Structure

Everybody is aware of the big story of emergence of the great Indian middle class. If you see Indian society, a large part of the population from the base of the traditional socioeconomic pyramid is rapidly shifting towards the middle of the hierarchy; the reasons can be many- the opening up of the Indian economy, new employment opportunities created by the entrepreneurial spirit of young India, or urban migration et al. The use of 'pyramid' term to represent this society is about to get inappropriate or obsolete. Such a society full of middle class populace 'd better be represented by a 'diamond' structure- bulging from the middle.

Have you ever thought of any correlation between socioeconomic status of a society and the structure of the people of that society?

In fact there seems to be one and a positive correlation which is not just coincidental in the case of India. The people in  the new middle class have a great tendency to become diamond shaped themselves, bulging from middle either from front or from back!! Blame it on the lack of fitness awareness, unhealthy lifestyle, fitness being at lower priority than earning money or as faulty a belief as "fat means healthy" or "thin means weak".  Another explanation could be the overuse (abuse) of newly acquired affordability of high fat/protein diet even if it doesn't suit their newly acquired sedentary life styles.

India is not alone to witness this widespread shift in waistline. An increase in per capita income usually leads to an increase in waistline of the people. Even in USA during the middle of 20th century, a similar trend was seen and historical evidence shows that such a  trend prevails for 1 or 2 generation (around 4 decades) and then the ill-effects of unhealthy practices and perceptions start to show up which force people to think otherwise and check their perceptions, become conscious of lifestyle and food pattern, or simply rethink their priorities. No surprise the current generation in US is one of the most health conscious.

India is also on the same track, it's repeating the history; the only difference being that we are lagging behind by a couple of decades. Indian economy opened up in 1992 and prosperity reached masses in 2000s and an optimistic estimate is that the bulging waist lines would continue till '20s or '30s.

Hope India doesn't take too long to correct it's perceptions and gets saved from the imminent epidemic of lifestyle diseases upon which the healthcare, pharmaceutical and health insurance industry are banking big.