Indian Express 11.11.2009
Govt launches comic book in city to teach children about diabetes
If your teen or tween has no time for exercise and is glued to a computer screen for hours playing games, there is cause for worry. If he/she is always nibbling chips and his burger-cola parties are beginning to give you sleepless nights, you need to worry more. Apart from contributing to the growing problem of obesity among children, here is worse news — 85 per cent of children diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes are overweight.
To create awareness regarding the increasing incidence of diabetes among children, comic books with a health focus were launched on Tuesday by Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.
The books have characters like Sheela the housewife and Radha the next-door sister who “lead kids through a sequence of incidents on the subject”.
The 16-page comic book contains information like signs of diabetes, managing the disease and its detection. “Diseases that are normally seen in adults are now being seen with increasing frequency among children, particularly Type-2 diabetes,” said Dr Ashok Jhingan, chairperson of Delhi Diabetes Research Centre (DDRC), and the brain behind the concept. “And obesity is one of the major causes of the disease.”
To begin with, DDRC’s Juvenile Diabetes Education Foundation of India is launching 1,000 copies of the comic series named “Diabetes and You” in Hindi and English in various government, MCD, and private schools of Delhi and NCR.
“The comic comprises of stories, diagrammatical information and pictorial situations that will educate children about the deadly disease,” Dr Jhingan added.
So why comics to spread awareness? “Children love comics and try to emulate the characters, so we thought of using comics to catch them young,” he added. “It is important to generate awareness about diabetes, as by the time children reach Class V, they have already formed their food habits”
According to the International Diabetic Federation, India is the diabetes capital of the world, with as many as 56.5 million people suffering from the ailment. Studies have predicted that India will have about 87 million diabetic patients in 2020.
“To remove this dubious distinction, we thought of starting the series,” Dr Jhingan said. “And 14 to 18 per cent of the population of this metro is diabetic.”
Unveiling the comics, Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said, “If children are educated today, this can go a long way in preventing the spread of the disease in future.”
November 14 is celebrated as the World Diabetes Day. The theme for this year is “Prevention and Education for Diabetes”.
DDRC has already distributed the comic books to a few city schools, among them Delhi Public School, R K Puram, Bal Bharati School and Hansraj School. “Sixty five per cent of school children eat fast food at least once in a week. These comics will mould their ideas about the disease,” said Jhingan.
