Union minister Jitendra Singh, who is also a nationally renowned Diabetologist, on Friday, stressed the need to prevent diabetics during pregnancy for the well-being of India’s future generations.

Addressing the annual conference of DIPSI (Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group of India), Jitendra Singh said Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus has already assumed epidemic proportions in India with the country having achieved the dubious distinction of being described as the diabetes capital of the world.

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“In an alarming situation like this,” he said, “unless we are able to effectively prevent the occurrence of Diabetes in pregnant women, it may not be possible to break the chain of Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus getting passed on from generation to generation and thus affecting the future generations.”

It is a well-known fact, Singh said that a woman who gets Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is likely to pass on to her progeny and gets a higher preponderance to developing Type-2 diabetes at a relatively younger age.

Today’s newborns, the minister said, are tomorrow’s youth and would determine the face and profile of India in the year 2047. “Therefore, all of us owe it not only to the medical fraternity but to the nation as a whole to support and supplement the crusade taken up for primordial prevention of diabetes in pregnancy,” he said.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi having mentioned the “Digital Health Mission” in his Independence Day address, Jitendra Singh said, the government today accords high priority to preventive healthcare which is evident from the manner India could develop the first DNA vaccine against Covid and also provide it to the rest of the world.