The case study is a story of two women Kanaka and Suma from the tribal community in Gudalur that shows rising alcoholism, vicious cycle of severe malnutrition among women and children and its intergenerational transmission among the community members. The case study, also demonstrates how quantitative data or statistics in silos could be misleading and has the potential to mask the stark inequalities that might exist while simultaneously there could be an overall improvement in the health indicators of a community.