3 min readJun 18, 2026 06:20 AM IST
First published on: Jun 18, 2026 at 06:20 AM IST
At eight in the morning, outside a school gate, India’s future often arrives half-awake. One child is finishing chips before assembly. Another is rubbing sleepy eyes after a late night. Somewhere, a quiet girl is worried about her body because someone called her “fat”. A boy who looks perfectly healthy may be silently anxious. Another child may be brilliant at Mathematics but unable to run for five minutes without breathlessness.
We speak of Viksit Bharat, demographic dividend, start-ups and Olympic dreams. But a nation’s first infrastructure is the bodies and minds of its children. Swami Vivekananda’s call — Abhih (“be fearless”) — must return to the schoolyard. For a student, fearlessness means the courage to leave mobiles and sleep on time, say no to daily junk food, play despite exam pressure, and not mock a classmate’s body. It means the courage to choose wisely when the senses are pulling the mind in every direction.
Modern medicine is now saying what Indian wisdom has long taught through yoga: The body, mind, senses and behaviour are not separate compartments. Food is not just calories. Sleep is not just rest. Exercise is not just physical training. Screen time is not just entertainment. Each shapes appetite, mood, attention, metabolism and self-control. A child smells fried food, remembers the taste, watches an advertisement, and the brain begins to negotiate. The indriyas (senses) can overpower mana, chitta and viveka. Neuroscience calls it reward circuitry and hedonic drive. Our tradition calls it loss of inner mastery. Obesity is a story of disturbed rhythm: Too much sitting, too little sleep, too many screens and ultra-processed foods, too little play, too little silence.
This is where yoga must be understood as an education in self-governance. Suryanamaskar teaches rhythm. Pranayama teaches pause. Asana teaches balance. Meditation teaches attention. Together, they give a child command over the restless body and mind. Health should be built into the school timetable: Five minutes of breathing, 10 minutes of movement, clean drinking water, sensible canteen choices, playground time, sleep education, body-respect conversations and screen discipline can become India’s most affordable public-health revolution.
The message to students should be simple: Eat less, but well; use screens, but do not become their servant; laugh, but never at someone’s body; compete, but do not become cruel. Let “Abhih” become the new school health mantra — not as aggression, but fearless self-mastery. Because students’ health is India’s national capital. The republic is rebuilt every morning in the breath, posture, food plate, playground, sleep and smile of a child.
Joshi is a Mumbai-based endocrinologist.
Samajdar is a clinical pharmacologist and diabetes and allergy-asthma therapeutics specialist in Kolkata
