Richie Rich go hungry

Call it the new age class equality or the crisis of this generation, the traits and behaviour patterns of the 21st century Richie Rich are coming shockingly closer to those of any street urchin.
Both suffer from malnutrition, common illnesses, threat of alcohol, drug abuse and violent tendencies. Children from the uppermost and the lowest stratas of Indian society today have more commonalities than differences when it comes to mental and physical health.
Experts say that the factors that shape the health of the child are becoming similar because of a number of reasons.
According to Dr Maneesh Date — a consulting physician with a clinic in an affluent suburb of Pune — the highsociety hazards of a child''s health are frighteningly similar to those of a slum child.
"Malnutrition doesn''t necessarily mean a child famished due to lack of food. Nutrition is the diet pattern which gives high protein and fibre content to the body along with the necessary amounts of minerals and vitamins," says he, "Kids from well-to-do families are addicted to junk food,which have high carbohydrate and fat content, but is poor on proteins and fibre. While the slum kids have carbohydrates because they are cheap and filling."
This trend, opines Dr Date, creates common problems of protein, vitamin and mineral deficiency in children of both the groups. "Poor eyesight, digestion problems, fatigue, inactive brain are some diseases that I find very common among the affluent kids," he adds.
Dietician Shubhangi Atre confirms the fact that money doesn''t make sure that the children eat right. "Many parents give the children money to buy their lunch in the mealtimes and indulge them with spicy and oily junk items like french fries, pizzas and burgers," she says, "This makes the child fat, not healthy."
Atre relents that the awareness regarding importance of natural food and proteins is still less prevalent among the rich parents. "Even if the parents are aware, they scarcely find time to pay attention to the food habits of the child," she says, "The kids are mostly at the mercy of the crèche operator, baby-sitter or a maidservant, who have no knowledge of proper diet."
Another factor that Atre finds disturbing is the lack of hygiene among kids. "I have seen kids from high society families, who don''t even brush their teeth everyday," she elaborates, "If the mother is in a hurry, she sends the kid to school without a bath."
Urmila Deshpande, a Puneite who works as a counsellor in a reputed school at a hill-station says, "Simple habits like washing hands before eating and cleaning the teeth after a meal are hard to find among the children from opulent families." This makes the children prone to common illnesses like loose motions, tapeworms, infections and allergies, just like their poor counterparts.
The newly-added factor to this list of parallel problems, is family stress. Says family counsellor and psychologist Sushma Sheth, "The problems of domestic violence, divorce and lack of communication are surprisingly more prevalent among the upper and the lower echelons of the society than the m i d d l e -class," she explains, "This makes the children from well-to-do families very vulnerable to early alcohol and drug abuse and violence just like the street children." Psychological instability causes even more distress for a wealthy kids, because of lavish spending. "If the child is directionless but has money, he or she will always find someone to latch on and direct the money to destructive ways," adds Sheth.
Junk food can also harm memory and may lead to brain damage. Foods laden with sugar and fat appear to reduce levels of a natural brain chemical crucial for learning.
sharvari.joshi@timesgroup.com