Patna, April 18: All work and no play makes Jack a dull, oops obese, boy.

With land sharks swallowing playgrounds, children are getting hooked to indoor games. For most of them, outdoor games are passé. The in-thing is sedentary lifestyle, the root of obesity.

Dr Suman Kumar, paediatrician at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), said: “The cause of obesity among children is mainly attributed to lack of physical exercise and unhealthy lifestyle. Parents’ lack of attention towards kids’ diet aggravates the problem. A few years ago, the situation was not this bad as kids played outdoor games for a considerable time but all that has changed now.”

Veteran child expert Dr Arun Kumar Thakur said: “Today, roughly 12-13 per cent kids belonging to the upper middle class families are obese. People do not act till their child becomes a chronic obese because of lack of awareness on the disease.”

Thakur said: “There has been a drastic change in the lifestyle of children in the past few years, especially since the advent of computers. Today, we have more cyber cafes in our cities than playgrounds. But parents should encourage their kids to indulge in sports because obesity gives rise to serious complications like renal diseases, diabetes and hypertension.”

He said: “It is a fact that kids today are under much more pressure than we were as children but we will have to adopt some ways to tackle the issue before it gets out of control. In many cases I have seen working parents make up for the lack of spending quality time with their kids by eating out and watching movies two-three times a month. Why can’t they go to parks or for picnics on weekends? These habits have to be adopted by parents if they want to see their kids healthy and fit,” he said.

Parents, too, felt that lack of open spaces is a major concern. “When I was a kid, I spent three-four hours playing football and tennis every day. Today, not many children play for even an hour. They rather watch TV or surf net. This is a dangerous trend,” said Alok Verma, a father of two.

Some parents said several schools did not have the required infrastructure to support outdoor activities of children.