REALITY STATUS OF KIDS
My heart just sank when I saw this
piece of news In Times of India, a week ago. It was about the survey on kids between the
age of seven and seventeen." One out of two kids unfit for sports in
Maharashtra" it said. I felt all my dreams got shattered. After the
Olympic games, I was just thinking that the authorities take sports seriously
in these four years and make it big in next Olympics. Survey is giving
altogether a different picture. I see this news as very depressing one. As it
is we (the government is not able to handle lifetime partners like diabetes,
blood pressure and heart diseases of 25-40 age group) now there are additional
contribution by the kids to make our
country a perfect unhealthy or a sick country. Where is this leading to? Obesity, low endurance power, low anaerobic
capacity, poor flexibility levels and body mass index has shattered dreams of millions of people in
building a healthy nation by 2020.
The survey reveals that kids of metros
fared badly compared to non metro kids .Contrary to assumptions that metro
cities have more facilities and opportunities, non metro city kids are still
able to pull along. Whom do we blame? ourselves? lifestyle? or stress? or
economic status?
Our previous generation had time for
everything including fitness aspects. Seldom were the cases of death due to
prolonged injuries. There were stories about some senior members(both ladies
and gents) doing their exercises till the last day of death. They consulted
their only family physician in worst cases. Our generation, though not as hard
working as our previous generations, definitely try to live a illness free
life. We envy our elders who had fairly
a good health and try to follow their footsteps to some extent. We take
all precautions seriously, check our diet and go for regular exercises. Even
then, royal diseases embraces us.
What will be the state of kids of
future generation? Apart from going to
school and corresponding tuition classes, they go to various other places. The
schedule of kids are set for months together. They compulsorily visit obesity clubs, juvenile diabetic forums,
counseling centers and so on.
Kids are driven around the city to save time
and security point of view. Parents try to make all ends meet by giving time
and literally live for kids. The results are not coming in favour of good
health of kids. Something is seriously going wrong somewhere. There is an
urgent need to fix this issue at the earliest.
Will it help if sports and health
aspects of kids are taken as a subject equivalent to, english mathematics, or science in schools? Can
schools and government build confidence
among children and their parents about opportunities of jobs if they choose
sports as career?
As parents, can we go for a work out with kids? Most of
us do go for workouts . Can we make them do their work without depending on
servants(I dare say that) Can we ask for their helping hand in kitchen and
garden(if we have one)? Will restriction on junk food help? Can we have family
sports hero like we have family physician? Can we hide remote of TV for a
month? Can we ask our milk vendor to take leave for a month and ask our kids to
take the responsibility?
I think, we as parents of future generation give hints to our kids to know that sports career is short lived especially in India. That is the stark truth in present scenario. Clear messages are sent that sports is seriously not for our family but may be for our neighbors. We Indirectly try to divert the attention of kids(if they have any inclination)towards some fields like IAS and IPS. We encourage them to choose white collared job which requires only brain to work hard and not the body. Without wasting much time kids are enrolled in respective classes with a strict warning that they better study hard without any distraction(including sports) to secure seats in top ten colleges.
Other side of the coin is equally true. Do we find clinics, specialists an physiotherapy centers for injuries during sports easily in India? If at all we find such facilities can we afford huge medical bills without any insurance coverage? keeping all these things in the mind, time tested paths to make a living is a safer option for our future generation. The very thought of one out two kids unfit for sports haunts me beyond a limit. They seem to have accepted to the failure before even getting in to field. This is a sad and shocking truth. I hope some miracle happens and sports takes coveted position in Indian society someday. I wait for that day.
Mrs.
Srilakshmi Swamy
