Doctor Anoop Misra is director of diabetes and metabolic disease at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi. He says the risk of diabetes is crossing social and economic lines. Five years ago, he says, obesity and diabetes were limited to India’s wealthiest people. But now the poorest are also getting heavier.

ANOOP MISRA: "We thought we’d find all malnutrition, but what we found was the paradox. Many people were thin. They’re malnourished, undernourished. The other side of the picture was that many people were fat and some of these belonged to the poorest section of that slum."

But Doctor Misra is hopeful that the spread of obesity can be slowed. And he says it must start in the schools by giving all Indian children the same instruction on physical activity and diet.

The World Health Organization says China is also moving up in obesity rates. The estimate has reached about five percent countrywide and as high as twenty percent in some cities.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver with Linda Blake in New Delhi. You can find transcripts, MP3s and archives of our reports and share your comments at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.