The data from the survey makes one thing clear that children’s health is a shared responsibility. Parents are the first line of defence – the food on the plate, the hour of outdoor play, the screen switched off at bedtime. But schools need to step up as much. Children spend a third of their lives inside a classroom and that’s where structural, collective change can take place.
The findings of Bengaluru-based Sportz Village EduSports’s 14th Annual Health Survey (AHS) 2026, have revealed a startling trend among school children: Two out of every three school-going children in India cannot sustain basic cardiorespiratory activity. Aerobic fitness is the single strongest predictor of lifelong cardiovascular health, and its absence in childhood is a direct pipeline to adult diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Spanning 1,41,840 children across 333 schools in 112 cities, the report delivers evidence-based insights into post-COVID fitness recovery, the decisive impact of structured Physical Education (P.E.), and persistent health gaps that demand urgent systemic action. The survey assesses seven key parameters including Body Mass Index (BMI), Aerobic Capacity, Anaerobic Capacity, Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Strength, Core/Abdominal Strength, and Flexibility. Therefore, providing an unmatched longitudinal view of how India’s children are growing up.
The report also says 40% of children fall outside a healthy BMI range, a figure that has barely shifted across three years of post-COVID recovery (59.1% healthy in 2023; 59.6% in 2025), confirming that body composition responds to sustained lifestyle change far more than to school PE alone. Beyond that, 49% of children fail to meet the upper body strength benchmark and 44% fall short on lower body strength, gaps that point to a generation that is sedentary, screen-bound and physically underprepared.
Saumil Majmudar, Co-founder, CEO & MD, Sportz Village, said, “This year’s findings rearm something we have always believed – healthy childhoods are intentionally built! At a time when children are facing rising lifestyle-related health risks and growing emotional pressures, building healthy habits early has never been more important. Schools play a critical role by designing structured opportunities for movement, but lasting impact comes when families and communities support the same environment. As a country, we must continue to track and understand children’s well-being at scale, so that we can respond meaningfully and collectively. The opportunity before us is clear – to act with intent today and create healthier, happier childhoods for the years ahead.”
Girls Are Fitter Than Boys
Girls outperform boys in five of seven fitness parameters: BMI (62% vs 57%), flexibility (73% vs 68%), core strength (88% vs 86%), upper body strength (53% vs 45%) and anaerobic capacity (65% vs 63%). This is an encouraging shift with the result of more inclusive PE programming in recent years.
But only 27% of girls have healthy aerobic capacity, versus 41% of boys, a 14 percentage-point gap that is the widest gender divide in the entire survey. Girls are stronger and more flexible. They cannot run. If this aerobic deficit is not addressed through gender-responsive PE, it will quietly become a long-term health inequality.
Public School Children Are Fitter Than Their Private School Peers
Children in government and public schools outperform their private school peers in five of seven fitness parameters including aerobic capacity (40% vs 33%), anaerobic capacity (81% vs 62%) and flexibility (78% vs 69%). The anaerobic gap alone is 19 percentage points. More daily movement, more outdoor time, less sitting are the advantages that outweigh infrastructure. Private schools lead only in upper body strength. For everything that predicts long-term health, public school children are ahead.
The full report is available at Link
