India, Nov. 28 -- When we think of diabetes, we often picture older adults managing pills, insulin, and clinic visits. That image is rapidly becoming outdated. Across the globe and in India in particular, diabetes is moving down the age scale. Type 2 diabetes, once rare in children and adolescents, is rising fast; simultaneous increases in overweight, obesity, and unhealthy dietary patterns among young people are driving a public-health alarm that cannot be wished away.

The numbers that set this context are sobering. Internationally, public health monitoring suggests a steep upward trend in youth-onset diabetes: data points to a big rise in type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents if current trends continue. In the United States, p...