to diet for: Young girls starve themselves in order to look ‘in’. Photo: Subhendu Chaki

When Neha Agarwal, student of class 8 at Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Park Circus, nearly passed out in class one morning, and on investigation it was found that she had been coming to school virtually on an empty stomach for the past week or so, principal Rashi Narula decided it was time to call the parents. Not just Neha’s, but those of all the girls studying in the school, especially the upper classes. “There is an alarming rise in the number of girls becoming obsessed with weight,” she explains, “and they are practically starving themselves in order to be thin. They come to school without eating anything and at times they go through the day without food.” So much so that in recent months there have been several instances of girls throwing up or fainting in school from nausea and dizziness.

Alarmed, the school authorities called a parent-teacher meeting late last month, in which the main agenda was to bring the issue to the notice of the girls’ families and discuss possible ways to tackle the problem. “In order to try and contain the menace, the role of the family is vital,” says Narula, who feels the problem, unless nipped in the bud, is likely to take on an epidemic quality. “Not only are more and more young girls becoming preoccupied with weight,” she adds, “their age is getting younger and younger”.

Megha Dokania, Ankita Golchha and Lehar Gupta, students of class 10 at the school, for instance, are all of them, only 15, but each one has already decided that she doesn’t want to be fat. Isn’t it a little too early too worry about putting on weight? Especially since, at the moment they appear to be just right? “We are all going to take part in beauty contests,” smiles Lehar shyly, standing outside the gate of her school with her friends, a backpack slung over her shoulders, “so we can’t afford to gain weight”. She is seriously watching her figure and though she admits she “just loves chips and chocolates”, she doesn’t give in to temptation often.

“Also, people tease you if you are podgy,” giggles Ankita, making it clear that she would rather forgo food than be thought fat. Megha agrees, adding, that, “it’s not happening to be plump, is it?”

Rimjhim Chatterjee, Sneha Krishnan and Sreemoyee Dasgupta, all 11th-grade students, though not interested in becoming beauty queens, point out that, “if you want to be popular in school you’d better not be fat.” “It’s the girls who participate in school fashion shows and have boyfriends that belong to the in-crowd,” says Sreeemoyee, “and to participate in fashion shows or have a boyfriend you have to be slim,” she adds.

No is denying that while the reasons vary, the young girls’ obsessive preoccupation with weight is cause for concern.

Least of all parents. “I get really worried,” says Suman Agarwal, Neha’s mother. “Even if I make sure that she has breakfast before she leaves home, how will I monitor whether or not she is eating her lunch or throwing it away?”

In fact, the problem got so bad with Neha that for 15 consecutive days Narula insisted that Neha come to her office during recession and eat her lunch in front of her.

Experts link the problem to the excessive preoccupation these days with appearance. “These girls are at an impressionable age,” explains child psychologist Ishita Sanyal, “and not only are they constantly exposed to the glorification of physical beauty, but they are bombarded with impossible ideals. From television ads, featuring stick-thin models and movie stars to fashion shows for kids, such deifications create in their minds a yearning to emulate. And being too young to decide what is right or wrong, they often resort to what seems to them to be the best option — starve themselves.”

As was the case with Neha. According to Agarwal, her daughter, though only 14 years old, “is often told by her friends that she should become a model, because she is already five feet six inches tall. They also tell her that if she eats too much she will put on weight. I try to explain to her that even to become a model she should eat properly, but at this age, girls would rather listen to their friends than to their mothers.”

Narula, however, insists that it’s only when parents and guardians wake up to the magnitude and seriousness of the problem that it can be dealt with.

“It is important for families to inculcate values in these young girls so that they can differentiate between right and wrong,” she says. “Instead of making beauty queens and movie stars their models, they should be taught to emulate real people, who are not just symbols of physical beauty.”

And as far as Narula is concerned, the parent-teacher meeting was a success, judging by the turn-out at the meet. “Close to 400 parents attended,” she says, “and everyone was eager to brainstorm for ways to combat the problem.”

According to Agarwal, “One of the suggestions made at the parent-teacher meeting was to pack lunch, which is not just healthy but tasty too, so that the girls would look forward to their meals. I think, in the case of my daughter, it is already working.”