Indian childrens EQ declining fast

Updated on: Monday, November 14, 2011

Indian parents often goad their babies to not grow up fast. If childhood is about magic, it is vanishing even before it is lived. In fact children are indeed growing up fast, speeding past the springtime of their lives, say psychiatrists who connect that to the falling levels of emotional quotient. The warm hugs, the tiny kisses, a ride on the Ferri's wheel, a family camping trip, vanishing into a book with mum, playing chess against dad, are all now just cloying instances tucked away in fables.

“The EQ among our children is on the decline. They have a lower threshold for tolerance, they are easily depressed, their coping ability has reduced and complexity has gone up. Seven- and eight-year-olds talk of violent acts and of dying these days,” says psychiatrist Nirmala Rao.

The new toys like Angry Birds, Crime Life: Gang Wars and other ultraviolent games don’t score too well in enriching EQ. Our cities’ kids-unfriendly design doesn’t help either: you need to go to a hill station even for a horse ride or to spend time under a waterfall.

Peggy Mohan, an English teacher with a Delhi school, says, “We are living in tiny cocoons. Our children are like aliens who’ve ventured into the adult space. They are as nice as ever, but they do not have the sense of the landscape they live in.”

A textbook on EQ records an experiment on two sets of children sitting in front of a bowl full of marshmallows. They are told that those who would wait can pick two marshmallows, and those wanting them immediately would have to be happy with just one. Those who waited were later tracked in life: they were happier, scored better in school and went on to have strong family bonds.

Indian childrens EQ declining fast

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