Health of Indian Children attending government schools is alarmingly low – How a lack of structured physical education and sports education programs is harming children.
The fitness of children in India’s government schools is alarmingly low according to Sportz Village’s Annual Health Survey. The nationwide study covered more than 2,00,000 children, within the age group of 7 years to 18 years, from approximately 700 private and public schools. The study showed that 65 % of children in government schools do not have healthy BMI levels. This compares poorly to children who attend private schools, where 53 % of the children have a healthy BMI. The poor state of BMI can be attributed to the lack of access to structured physical education and sports education programs and poor nutritional choices that are available to the children attending government schools. The survey also shows that 37 % of girls have a healthy BMI compared to 34 % of boys. Boys are fitter than girls in several fitness parameters such as lower body strength, aerobic capacity, and anaerobic capacity. However, girls perform better in upper body strength.