Catch 'em young: Rise in no. of kids learning self-defence

Apart from Karate, Judo and Taekwondo, Krav Maga — a street self-defence system, is also getting popular among students. Most of the private schools in Chennai and its suburbs, organise self-defence training classes regularly, especially for girl, after their regular classes.

Experts said that though Chennai is considered safer than other metro cities in the country, it’s still important that kids learn how to defend themselves when they were subjected to a physical attack. Students too feel that learning such skills not only gives them confidence but also keeps them physically fit. 

"Kids who are trained in suck skills can thwart attacks from adults. It is especially useful for the girls,” S Venkat Kumar, who teaches Karv Maga to the students in couple of schools at Pallavaram, said. 

“It also helps to keep the students’ mind fresh,” he added. Kumar said unlike many other martial arts that are totally based on a tradition or culture, Krav Maga is different. 

"This Israeli self-defence method is based on real-life situations that can be seen in the street fights,” he said. Kumar added that a majority of the schools offer such classes to their students without any fee. 

"This encourages parents to make their wards enrol in the classes,” said Kumar. Malathy Balakrishnan, the director of academics at Sri Sankara Public school in Pammal said that in two years, more than 1,500 girls from Classes 1 to 9 have been trained in karate. 

"We are going to extend the self-defence programme to boys also," she said. 

According to the recent guidelines issued by HRD department, self-defence course can be an optional subject for students in the schools. But, the ministry said that district education officers and school administration need to select trainers from registered institutes and women trainers will be given priority for training girl students. 

S Thiyagarajan, father of a girl studying in Class 4, said that this is the age when children learn everything quickly and thus training them in self-defence now makes better sense. Even the state spent Rs 25 lakh and introduced self-defence programmes in more than 300 schools this academic year where girls are trained in Karate, Judo and Taekwondo. 

A senior official from the education department said that currently, training on martial arts is given weekly twice for three months to girls by well-trained coaches under the supervision of school teachers. 

"The programme will be expanded to other schools," he said adding, "By 2020, all girls from Classes 1 to 9 in government schools will be trained to defend themselves.”