In Chennai, 56% of school children have unhealthy BMI says survey
Posted on: 25/Jan/2020 10:19:24 AM
Overall health and fitness levels of the school children were studied in Chennai by a survey. It is now said that 56 percent of these have got unhealthy BMI or body mass index.
Various fitness parameters that were used to access the school children were BMI, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, core, flexibility, upper and lower body strength etc. An organisation that is involved in training school students is Sports village and this sports village covered more than 1.4 lakhs children between 7 and 17 from 364 schools in 250 cities and towns.
The surprising piece of information is girls outdid boys in lower body strength and aerobic capacity (boys had 23% whereas girls had 41%). Healthy BMI was found in 49 % of boys but just 46% girls had healthy BMI. The boys and girls were found to be equal in abdominal strength and anaerobic capacity of 84% and 66% respectively.
In whole India, it was found that every other child had an unhealthy BMI. There existed a gap between the students belonging to private schools and government schools ad this was revealed in the survey. The children in government schools had BMI of 35% but those in the private schools had BMI of 47%. Better flexibility, aerobic and anaerobic capacity was found in students who studied in state run schools.
It was later mentioned by Mr. Saumil Majumdar, CEO, Sports Village, that poor fitness has been worrying. He explained about the need for more physical activities. Structured in school education programmes that were age appropriate and inclusive were needed for the students.
The survey later mentioned about how the weekly physical education periods were important. Higher aerobic activity was found in those students who had more than 2 physical education periods per week. A physical education teacher belonging to a private school in Chennai was of the opinion that getting the students to the playground would make them fit plus it would relax them. After the school hours, many children who adopt sport try to practize it. A teacher would be able to manage the physical education well by means of low student teacher ratio.
