The youth of India are taller than the people of the old and middle age groups, but the Indians, as a whole, have shorter height compared to people from Australia, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, North America and Taiwan.
These are some of the facts that have emerged from a two year long study that had been conducted by the ARAI officials. This information pertaining to body profiles of Indians is being utilized by the automobile manufacturers so that they can design their cars in accordance to the size and physique of their Indian customers.
Sr. Deputy Director of ARAI, D.J. Kulkarni has said that this data is now being licensed out to auto companies and already four manufacturers have started using this data for designing vehicles that are going to ensure better driving.
According to the study of ARAI, Indian males have a 167.3 cm average standing height. This height is considerably less compared to some other countries. The average standing height of males in Italy, Germany and North America is 173.6cm, 177.1cm and 177.7cm respectively. The Dutch males are even taller, having a height of 181.3cm. Though the average height of males has been found to be 167.3cm, the variation in highest and lowest heights has been found to be 178.7cm and 156.3cm respectively.
The Indian females have an average height of 156.2cm whereas their maximum and minimum heights have been skewed between 166.4cm and 145.5cm. The average seating heights of males as well as females have been found by this study as 86cm and 80.8cm respectively. The respective body weights of males and females are 63.9kg and 55.1kg.
An Assistant Director of ARAI, C.V. Ghaisas has said that the study has found out that the younger segment of population has more height compared to the middle aged and older groups. Other than height, ARAI has also worked on other information pertaining to the size of the body.
The technical and engineering staff at ARAI have made use of 3-dimensional body scanners for collecting information on 100 different body dimensions, included among which was 73 different body measurements, 20 varied palm dimensions, 5 for the foot and 3 for footwear. This data on body scanning has included multiple age groups right from 18 to 29 years extending up to 45 years and more.
Officials at ARAI have said that this study has significant importance as there is no recent comprehensive information available on the anthropometrics of the population in India. M.R. Saraf, who has been a core member of this group, which has conducted this exercise, has said that the data has covered extensively all four regions of India. The information has been collected from a minimum of 15 locations across India including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Ambala, Jamshedpur and Vellore.
