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World Obesity Day

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    World Affairs
  • Published
    5th Mar, 2022

Context

World Obesity Day is observed every year on March 04. 

  • It is observed to spread awareness about obesity and encourage action towards its elimination.

History

  • World Obesity Day goes way back to the year 2015, wherein a non-profit organisation worked closely with World Health Organisation and Lancet Commission in helping spread awareness.
  • Later in 2016, the focus was shifted to childhood obesity, while later in 2017, the idea was to treat obesity now and avoid consequences later.

Theme

  • The theme of World Obesity Day 2022 is ‘Everybody Needs to Act’. 
    • The campaign aims to improve the world’s understanding, prevention and treatment of obesity.
  • In 2021, ‘Everybody Needs Everybody’ was the chosen theme and the campaign that year turned out to be a huge success.

Significance

  • According to the World Health Organisation, obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975 and have seen a significant increase of almost five times in children and adolescents. 
    • It is affecting people of all ages from all social groups, in both developed and developing countries.
  • Obesity is one of the biggest health crises in the world, affecting 800 million people with millions more at risk, according to worldobesity.org. 
  • Additionally, people with obesity also experience constant shaming and blaming by many due to the lack of awareness about the disease. 
    • As such, it is extremely crucial to spread awareness about obesity, which is steadily becoming the biggest health challenge worldwide.
  • To spread awareness about the same and encourage action towards its elimination.

World Health Organisation (WHO)

  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that looks into matters of public health.
  • It was Established on April 7th, 1948, (a date now being celebrated every year as World Health Day).
  • Its headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland. 
  • There are 194 Member States, 150 country offices, six regional offices.
  • It is an intergovernmental organisation and works in collaboration with its member states usually through the Ministries of Health.
  • The WHO provides leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

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