India to fight obesity through yoga

Indian health minister plans to introduce yoga in schools to fight obesity, rising among middle-class youngsters. Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the country faced a galloping rise in heart disease, diabetes and cancer as India's 300-million-strong and increasingly wealthy middle class ate more junk food and lived more sedentary lives. At the other end of the spectrum, the country had some of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. On one hand there is an India, which is galloping on the economic front, while on the other, human development indices say we are 126th in the world. One side is undernourished while the other is overnourished. The health minister said that health and lifestyle classes would be introduced in schools along with yoga to teach everything from nutrition to AIDS awareness. Yoga can go a long way in reducing diseases like hypertension and diabetes. He emphasised that this should be made mandatory in all schools. Health officials will meet education bureaucrats in coming weeks to outline a plan to introduce health as a subject in schools as soon as possible. India is the diabetes capital of the world with 37 million diabetics, many of them obese children, official statistics show. Unless action is taken, 80 million could be diabetic by 2030. A private hospital in New Delhi recently conducted a study of 7-to-14-year-olds and found 23 percent were obese and 17 percent were hypertensive, and blamed junk food and lack of exercise for the same. This is alarming, especially for future health. Teaching children about good nutrition and exercise is therefore welcome. On the other side of the coin, India still experiences an under-one infant mortality rate of 56 per 1,000 live births, and an under-five mortality rate of 74, barely below Eritrea's 78 and more than double Indonesia's, U.N. figures show. The health minister was ashamed about the fact that India has IT revolution, but still has the pitiful infant mortality rate. Health officials say 70 percent of Indian women are anaemic and 20 percent of adults are undernourished or suffer from chronic energy deficiency. India is on its way on becoming a superpower, but unfortunately, 50-60 percent of children under three years are undernourished. Therefore the government aimed to better coordinate rural health programs.