Health consciousness growing in Indian IT sector

Monday, 08 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: After providing banking solutions and services, IT professionals at I-Flex are now busy making different types of salads, a manifestation of the health consciousness that appears to be sweeping India's IT sector. Employees of the banking solutions company are exchanging health information on the intranet, attending lectures by medical specialists, trying to maintain the correct posture at their desks and doing exercises to avoid health problems. Health consciousness grew manifold in the company after a health check up showed that 32.68 percent of I-Flex employees were overweight in the Mumbai office, 5.45 percent were obese in the Chennai office, and 20.90 percent of the staff in Bangalore had high body mass index and high blood pressure. The study covered 820 of the 2,300 employees across the country. It clearly showed that the sedentary lifestyle of the typical software engineer was beginning to show up in an unhealthy fashion. "The average age of our employees is 27 years. We thought it is important to create consciousness about health issues so that there are no early burnouts," Peter Yorke, senior manager, corporation communications, I-Flex, told IANS. "What is interesting is that attendance at the lectures by medical specialists is big," he added. Some incidents of carpel tunnel syndrome, the wrist problem that afflicts all those handling the mouse, are being reported across the sector. But industry officials say that the problem could increase if immediate steps to correct the situation are not taken. "My daughter works 12 to 14 hours a day. Where is the time for her to exercise or relax? She hits the bed soon after her arrival, most of the times without eating anything because the pizza at her office was still making her stomach feel heavy," said Shanti R. "Such stories abound in the industry. If you notice closely, quite a few of the small and medium enterprises are now beginning to organize a small gym for their employees at the work place. "This is indicative of the growing consciousness about health in the sector," said a HR official of a major company who did not want to be identified. The growing consciousness has now led people to plunge actively into the health and safety week that is currently on. But there are also companies like Infosys technologies, the largest listed exporter of software, having an on-going programme called the health assessment and lifestyle enrichment (Hale). Apart from check-ups for employees, myths and facts about homeopathy are also being presented to its employees.
Source: IANS
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