India is in the midst of an epidemiological transition, whereby poverty-linked infectious, maternal and nutritional diseases exist in conjunction with non-communicable chronic illnesses. This transition is driven by rapid economic development within which people eat, move, work, and live differently than before. This analysis of the third and fourth rounds of the National Family Health Survey demonstrates that non-communicable diseases, and their risk factors are undergoing a reversal of the social gradient and are moving down the socio-economic ladder into lower-income populations.
