Obesity and School Children

 

Obesity usually is caused due to over-eating and lack of activity- Two reasons which seem deceptively simple to deal with from the outside. After all, everything one has to do is to eat less and exercise more! How difficult can it be? Very, as it would seem.

Many school students in India simply lack the time to actually work on and improve their health and life-style. The reason for this usually boils down to their studies, or excess of. The current educational climate we've created in our country is hyper-fixated upon the notions of "getting good marks" and "scoring well". This sort of obsession with excellence, which in our case is usually enforced by parents and teachers, usually leads to many problems on the part of the students. The time they get to do anything else is severely restricted. And since they're forced to spend major part of their time on studies (which more often than not, focuses solely on rote-memorization), they usually end up too tired to do any physical activity.

Students are usually also forced to discontinue their extra-curricular activities (in most cases, sports) too. And in many cases, exam-related stress also leads to over-eating and obesity. Pairing this up with the "coaching" culture present in India, perhaps, best shows what the actual problems we need to deal with are, when we are talking about this issue.

Of course, combat this we need to create a general awareness of this destructive culture as well as each individual should try to give more time on actually dealing their issues and living a healthier lifestyle. Only then can we be truly able to solve this disease plaguing our generation.

Abhinav Mohanty,

Class – XI (E),

DAV Public School,

Pokhariput,

Bhubaneswar

How hygienic is the adolescent girl?

 

From quite a long time now we have been hearing in those long speeches, awareness videos and blogs that periods are quite normal and absolutely they are as normal as breathing but why is a girl who bleeds 7 days in a month bullied and shamed for the same!

Till menopause menstruation becomes the part and parcel of our lives. Menstrual blood is the only source of blood which is induced without any violence or traumatic experience yet considered the most impure, never spoken of and is expected to be hidden.

When I got my first period, I was told not to worry about and “It’s completely normal”. Normal? If it was normal why was I expected to stay locked in a room, why I was not allowed to the kitchen, to the temples and why was I forbidden to talk about it especially infront of males.

 And you speak of normal? That pain I bore for the first time was near to death. I just want to say to all the mothers out there; never be ashamed of your periods because then your daughters would be too. Be period positive.  A girl’s self esteem should never be sacrificed at the altar of Menstrual Myths.

The society never fails to astonish me. Let’s talk about a sanitary pad; do we wrap a packet of cigarettes or tobacco with black polythene or newspaper while buying it sounds quite unusual right? Then its not so while buying the sanitary pads? Sanitary pads are health products and are even classified as medical devices. Pads shouldn’t be a choice for girls; it should be a right and definitely not a taboo at all. I see absolutely no point in smuggling them as if it’s an illegal drug, sounds quite funny but that’s the harsh reality. I mean unless it’s an individual’s opinion as it’s a very personal thing to be used. We live in a world where its so easy and comfortable to wear it but so uncomfortable to speak about it.

However, pads emit toxic chemicals which cause undesirable side effects and can be detrimental to health. Over time, they may even lea to major illnesses like cancer!
So what’s an better alternative to that?  Menstrual cups have now evolved as the best alternative for pads and tampons.  No more rashes and odour. Unlike the others, the menstrual cup doesn’t absorb the menstrual fluid rather collects it, so no more feeling uncomfortable and dry. With proper care a single menstrual cup can be used for 5 to 6 years.
Why should boys have all the fun?
No more cancelling all your plans for the day just for your periods! With a menstrual cup, swimming, scuba diving, camping, hiking; anything is possible.

I think all the young girls and women should be encouraged and introduced to menstrocup. Its 2K22; All menstruators should have access to affordable, sustainable period products.

Have you ever noticed the advertisements using the weird blue liquid to show how absorbent their products are?
Television is still one of the prevalent media till now. So the commercials been shown hold great impact on the mass. These ads have the power to exasperate certain existing stigmas or bring a revolution of change in normalizing and destigmatizing menstruation. These ads should really become sensitive and responsible towards this topic and should not promote the idea of negative prejudices attached a woman’s body. Why blue anyway?

There exist some really absurd superstitions about periods that has crossed all levels of stupidity. I am a girl and proudly bleed every month knowing how strong I am! Trust me, I have been to temples, worshipped the Lord and nothing has turned impure, I have been to my kitchen and touched the jams; nothing rotted and it’s still delicious! I have carried pads without wrapping it in a newspaper and no one has turned blind!

So to all the girls it’s time to speak up, never let yourself be bullied just because you bleed!
To all the girls fighting to build their identity and to all the girls learning to stand up for themselves! More power to you’ll!

~ Milonee Mishra