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25% kids above eight are obese in urban India
N Ravikumar
Tribune News Service

Survey carried out in 21 schools across India, including NCR, Mohali, Amritsar and Panipat Too little sleep doubles obesity risk NEW YORK: Children aged four and under who get less than 10 hours of sleep a night are nearly twice as likely to be overweight or obese five years later, according to a US study. Researchers from the University of California and University of Washington in Seattle looked at the relationship between sleep and weight in 1,930 children aged 0 to 13 years old who took part in a survey in 1997 and again five years later in 2002. — Reuters

Chennai, September 10
Ever wondered why many Indian children are not physically fit and have poor endurance levels? One more survey has reconfirmed what is already well-known: Indian children put in much less physical activity than their counterparts in other countries. And since they are physically in poor shape, they become incapable of doing much physical activity. It is a vicious circle.

Twenty-five per cent of Indian children above the age of eight are obese and overweight, says a new national survey on physical fitness. Almost an equal number of children between five and 14 years of age have a high body mass index, reflecting poor endurance level, muscle strength and flexibility. The sample survey was carried out in 21 schools across the National Capital Area (NCR), Mohali, Amritsar and Panipat as also in Lucknow, Chennai, Indore, Bangalore, Mumbai and several other cities. The survey carried out by Edusports, an organisation promoting sports in the country, found that obesity levels were by and large similar across the states.

Fitness levels of children, says Saumil Majumdar, director of Edusports, are deemed to be a key indicator of children’s performance and potential everywhere. But few Indian schools seem to pay much attention to this aspect of children’s development. The findings would help identify the gaps in physical education for children, he added. Majumdar does not quite share a secret when he complains that the educational system in India favoured academics over physical fitness and sports, compromising the all-round development of children.

Recalling his experience, Majumdar said that in one of the schools, which had a strength of 2,500 students, only 75 students asserted that they were interested in sports. Only two hours in the entire week were devoted to physical activities. And the pattern, he claimed, is fairly representative. Sports, he advocated, needed to be made compulsory for children in schools. The children who figured in the survey were in the 5-14 years age group and factors that were studied included body mass index, aerobic (walking, running) and anaerobic (sprinting) capacities, muscle strength, endurance and flexibility.