India’s Children Struggle With Aerobic Fitness, Landmark Survey Finds

A nationwide assessment of over 1.4 lakh students has flagged a worrying decline in children’s aerobic fitness, with only 34.4% meeting recommended benchmarks in 2025.

Sportz Village EduSports’ 14th Annual Health Survey assessed 1,41,840 students across 333 schools in 112 cities, making it one of India’s largest school fitness datasets.

The survey identifies aerobic capacity as the most persistent and alarming deficit across 14 years of tracking. Poor aerobic health in childhood is directly associated with increased risk of chronic illnesses in adulthood.

While overall fitness levels have rebounded to 84.8% in 2025 — surpassing pre-pandemic levels — aerobic fitness has shown only incremental gains, rising from 27.5% in 2023 to 34.4% in 2025.

BMI levels remain stagnant, with 40% of children outside the healthy range. Nearly half the surveyed students fail to meet strength benchmarks, indicating sedentary lifestyles driven by screen dependency.

The data also shows that structured physical education makes a measurable difference. Schools conducting over 80 PE sessions annually recorded 86% overall fitness.

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.”