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Chandigarh: Every major Indian city has a social type that comes to define it: New Delhi has its politicians and power brokers, Mumbai its financiers, Bengaluru its hi-tech entrepreneurs, and Kolkata its aristocratic bhadralok.

But Chandigarh, the self-styled City Beautiful, stands out in a different register altogether. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) for 2023–24, it has the highest proportion of overweight and obese men in the country, 48.5% of its male population.

In this context, its evolving urban character has, in tongue-in-cheek local shorthand, given rise to an altogether more substantial counterpart: His Heavinesses – or HHs – a playful label for this visibly expanding legion of men whose crowns may be metaphorical but whose physical presence remains unmistakably evident across the city.

Over the weekend, the NFHS revealed that the number of obese adults in the city has risen sharply from 34.4% in the 2019–21 survey, well above the national average of 27.3%. In fact, Chandigarh’s HHs leave neighbouring Punjab’s men trailing by around 11 percentage points, despite the state itself topping the northern region on the male obesity scale at 37.5% and ranking eighth nationally. 

This entirely tongue-in-cheek unofficial “HH” hierarchy, defined not by lineage, wealth or achievement but by circumference, sits within a Punjabi food culture, where hospitality is measured in second and third helpings, and dieting is treated as a lapse in judgment. Restraint in eating is often viewed here with suspicion as well, blurring the line between indulgence and expanding waistlines.

Correspondingly, Chandigarh’s female counterparts are not far behind these ‘HHs’. At 41.9%, the proportion of women classified as overweight or obese has edged down slightly from 44% in the previous NFHS, placing them seventh nationally. Even so, city women remain well above the national female obesity average of 30.7%, which is topped by women in Puducherry, followed by Kerala.

But even more concerning is the NFHS finding that obesity is increasingly taking hold among Chandigarh’s children, under........

© The Wire