The incidence of heart attacks among children in India is increasing rapidly. This is related to the changing lifestyle of children, their eating habits, mental stress, and screen time. This danger can be prevented only through regular health checkups in schools, yoga, nutrition educatio,n and awareness among parents. This is not just a health issue, but a national warning.
Whenever we hear the word “heart attack”, we imagine a middle-aged person of fifty-sixty-five years of age—engrossed in a hectic life, laden with stress and fatigue. But today, the reality is much more frightening and shocking than this. Today heart attacks are not only haunting adults, but also innocent children. Such news is coming from many parts of the country, where children going to school suddenly fall and doctors call it “cardiac arrest” or “sudden heart failure”. Is this just a coincidence? Or has our lifestyle attacked the little hearts?
In the last few months, many such incidents have come to light from across the country, which confirm the seriousness of this threat. The latest case is from the Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh, where an innocent eight-year-old girl fell and died as soon as she reached the school gate. Earlier, incidents of the death of school children due to a heart attack have also been reported from states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Maharashtra. According to the Indian Medical Journals, there has been a 35% increase in cases of sudden cardiac arrest deaths among children under the age of 18 between 2021 and 2022. In the year 2022 alone, 32,457 youths died of a heart attack in India. A large number of these were teenagers between 10 and 18 years of age.
The question is, why is this happening? Is it just a matter of genetics? Are congenital heart diseases suddenly becoming active in children? Or is our changing lifestyle, eating habits, screen time, obesity, mental stress and physical inactivity a major factor behind this?
Experts say that the reason for this is “multi-factorial”—that is, it is a mixture of many factors. Today’s children are dependent on bread-burgers, pizza, cold drinks, and packaged snacks. Nutritious food, such as green vegetables, pulses, fruits, and milk, is no longer a part of their diet. Earlier, children used to run and play in the streets. Now, mobiles and gaming consoles have taken away their childhood. Tablets have replaced playgrounds. Excessive homework in schools, the race for coaching, expectations of parents, and the pressure to be the ‘best’ in every field is causing mental stress in children. This stress imbalance causes cortisol and other hormones in the body, which affects the heart.
Using mobile phones till late at night, watching reels, and playing online games affect children’s sleep. Lack of sleep is directly related to heart health. Pediatric cardiologists believe that heart attacks in children are usually caused by “congenital heart disease”, “cardiomyopathy”, “electrical disorders,” or “myocarditis”. But due to not detecting them on time, children become victims of sudden death. Unfortunately, the child health checkup system in our country is very weak. Most schools do not have regular health checkups, and parents also ignore symptoms like fatigue or shortness of breath in children.
To deal with this crisis, we have to adopt a multi-pronged strategy. The government should make cardiac checkups, ECGs, and general health checkups compulsory every 6 months in all private and government schools. Campaigns like ‘Fit India’ should be implemented seriously in schools. Children should be encouraged to do yoga, pranayam, meditation and regular physical exercise. Parents have to keep a careful watch on their children’s diet, sleep, and screen time. Take the child’s fatigue, irritability or any unusual physical symptoms seriously.
‘Nutrition education’ should be included in the school curriculum so that children can understand the importance of healthy food and body from an early age. Television and digital media should play the role of educating society for a healthy lifestyle instead of just selling products. It is ironic that while India is in the race to become a “developed nation”, its future i.e. children, are suffering from heart diseases. Niti Aayog, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education should together make a coordinated policy so that screening of children, health education, and emergency facilities can be ensured in every school. This is not just a matter of health, but of national security and human resource development.
Childhood is a festival of heartbeats, not the last stage of life. When a child dies of a heart attack, not just a life is lost—a future, a dream and a family are destroyed. We have to accept that the heart of children is no longer as strong as it used to be, because we have weakened it. Now the time has come that we should not just give speeches on ‘Heart Day’, but worry about the hearts of children every day. Otherwise, the day is not far when we will have to carry a stretcher instead of a school bag.
