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`Kids from pucca houses have better IQ'

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI DEC. 1. Here is another reason why a good home and a healthy environment is important to the growth of a child's IQ. In a recently conducted joint research by St. Stephen's Hospital and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) it was found that children living in a "permanent (pucca) houses'' have a significantly better IQ than those in shanty houses. And while it may not strike as something unknown previously, the fact has been finally established for the first time.

The study was carried out in an urban slum, Nand Nagri, where the Delhi Government under a housing scheme had built one-room houses for some of the migrant residents in what is termed as a "plot area''. However, as not all residents could be accommodated in the project, the remaining migrants continued to live in shanty houses nearby.

Now, 19 years later, young children who had migrated with their parents, have grown up and have children of their own. The study has looked at the development of these children living in the two types accommodation to assess their IQs.

``In the case of children living in shanty houses, environmental factors seem to override genetic factors and their IQ scores tend to decline with age as these children are brought up afflicted by a multitude of adverse factors such as poor housing, inadequate nutrition, parental illiteracy and infection,'' said Dr. Jacob Puliyel, Department of Paediatrics, St. Stephen's Hospital.

Explaining how the system works, Dr. Puliyel said: "People living in better houses were more likely to send their children to pre-school. This finding became important as it is consistent with an attitudinal change brought about by moving up the scales from living in a slum to a house of one's own. Living in slum is demoralising and degrading. Such parents, we noted, are likely to have less self-esteem, be less ambitious and have lower expectations of their children. ''

Analysis showed that the IQ was also influenced by malnutrition in the first six months of life and low attendance of the child at pre-school. For nutrition in the first six months, there was no difference between the groups. For attendance at pre-school, 110 of 200 in the plot area and 47 of 173 in the shanty houses were attending pre-school.

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