A very recent countrywide study has shown that about 40 percent fail to have a proper healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) and also warned that these children are moving towards a frightening and very unhealthy future. The study also emphasized on the fact that children in the country are lagging when it comes to accessing their fitness parameters.

The study for the academic year 2013-14 covered 1,15,559 children in the age group of 7 to 17 years in 287 schools across 85 cities from 23 states. A comparative study between boys and girls show that girls score lower than boys in all fitness parameters such as anaerobic capacity, flexibility, upper body strength and abdominal strength indicating that they are still short on overall fitness.

However, in case of BMI, 65 percent of girls have healthy scores when compared to 59 percent of boys.

Children in all five regions of the country were deemed more or less equally unfit with unhealthy BMI scores of 37 percent (Central), 54 percent (East), 37 percent (North), 38 percent (South) and 36 percent (West), said the study by EduSports, physical education and school sports enterprise. It said that non-metros score higher than metros in terms of BMI levels and fitness parameters.

Children in non-metros demonstrated better flexibility (75 percent in non-metros and 70 percent in metros), had good upper body strength (64 percent in non-metros and 61 percent in metros) and a marginal overall BMI score (61 percent in non-metros and 60 percent metros).

Physical activity and sports should be be made an indispensable part of every academic curriculum for an overall development of the child.