New figures released by the Women and Child Development ministry show that 18 percent of school children in Delhi are overweight and at risk of being obese.
A seminar organized by the ministry said that all these children were prone to develop high blood pressure, insulin resistant diabetes and cardiac problems in future. Renuka Chowdhury, minister of state for women and child development told delegates that there was an urgent need to check obesity in children.A new study by Dr Anoop Misra, Fortis Healthcare and colleagues published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that some 29% of schoolchildren of private schools in Delhi are obese or are at risk of being obese, while 11.3% of government schoolchildren fall in this category.
Ms Chowdhury told delegates that some policy decisions will be taken shortly in order to ensure that this problem was addressed as soon as possible.
Source-Medindia
RAS/L
