Little ones work out at Euro Kids International. Picture by Aranya Sen

After mothers who make time for the stepper after housework and fathers who lift weights before rushing to office, the kid will go gymming after school and before tuitions. The city, starved of playgrounds for its children, now has a fitness address catering solely to children.

Euro Kids International, a national chain of pre-school education, is opening a gym in south Calcutta that is aimed at the two-to-12 age group.

“In the US, 50 per cent of the pre-teens are overweight. India is moving towards a sedentary lifestyle. Children are growing up on junk food and indoor activities. Opening a gym for them is more of a pre-emptive move,” says Uday Mathur, managing director, Euro Kids International, from Mumbai.

The playschool integrates workouts into its schedule. “By the age of two, children have to acquire a range of motor skills — jumping, skipping, climbing… We provide a child-safe environment for that,” explains Uday.

At the Prince Anwar Shah Road branch of Euro Kids, two-and-a-half-year-old Soham and two-year-old Adritiya crawl into tunnels and struggle out of circular pits, carved to their size. On one side, three-year-old Devdeep is merrily spot-jumping.

“For the tots, the gym period is held thrice a week,” says principal Bindu Agarwal. The activities also include pranayam, padmasana and butterfly and peacock movements as part of aerobics.

The regimen gets tougher in the gym proper, that will operate in the evening. “We have two age groups — one from two to six, and another till 12 years. The asanas and exercises depend on age,” says Jaya Chatterjee, an instructor.

With the doors opening on August 14, last week saw half-a-dozen enrolments. But it is not just overweight children who are flocking there.

“I want my son Chirag to get some exercise. And if that happens in a non-restricted atmosphere outside school, he can enjoy himself as well,” says Simple Jain, mother of a four-and-half-year-old who longs for the playgrounds of her hometown Indore.

Somshubhra Jana of Class V, Julien Day School, misses a park near home. If he can go to the gym now, it is because he has an hour free between studies in the afternoon and the evening after the swimming club shut for the season. His mother Anita thinks he cannot adjust to a gym for adults, nor would the gear be right for him.

For Savita Dalmia, even if she has a playground near her New Alipore apartment, it is risky sending nine-year-old Harshita out “with so many types of men there”. All three are single children in nuclear families. All three have signed up at the gym.

So far only the Prince Anwar Shah Road branch of Euro Kids has a gym. If the response is good, the facility will be offered at other branches in the city.

With parents ready to pay for an alternative to what should be a child’s fundamental right — to play — more kids-only gyms are likely to mushroom.