Marked fit

There is increasing concern about a trend towards obesity in Indian schoolchildren,accompanied by a vulnerability to lifestyle disorders earlier restricted to the adult population. WHO projects that one in three Indians will be under treatment for diabetes or cardiovascular disorders by 2030,when these children will be adults. Sports Minister Ajay Maken’s proposal to inculcate a culture of fitness by rewarding physically fit schoolchildren is,therefore,well-intentioned. But,equally,the idea of rewarding children with academic points is ill-advised.

The draft of Maken’s National Physical Fitness Programme will be open to public comments for a month,in which this particular proposal will no doubt be hammered vengefully. The Indian education environment is steered by tiger moms and dads who invest their lives,materially and temporally,in the academic performance and prospects of their children. They will not take kindly to extra academic points being awarded to children who can jump higher or have a better body mass index than their own kids. If the proposed programme is forced upon parents,we shall witness a new plague of children’s dietary clinics and jumping tutorial academies,making the race for scores even more bizarre than it is today.

There is no denying that schoolchildren are at risk. But that is part of a larger health crisis. The real need is for a new,evolved universal health policy that acknowledges the crisis. It should favour a fitness culture and regular medical testing,the first lines of defence that are currently not prioritised. It must provide for basic facilities like public spaces for exercise and include insurance covering preemptive clinical strategies. Confusing public health with education,as Maken is doing,would only create a controversy without producing a solution.