He explains the anomaly as an unnatural ‘S’ shaped curve at the neck area. “Usually there is a nice smooth convexity between the C1 and C7 vertebrae. Over the past few years between the third and fifth vertebrae there is this concavity I have been noticing in patients. This usually sets in only with age — to people above 60 years. But now people as young as 18 or in their early 20s are showing this problem,” says D’Souza.

The observation is supported by Dr Parag Sancheti, another leading city orthopaedic who admits to seeing at least five to six patients everyday who have a spine problem arising from their work style.

“The reasons are simple — inactivity and wrong posture. The people in the IT field tend to sit for long hours on the computer without proper back rest. They have these deadlines to meet and monthly targets to chase that prevent them from taking a break. The fallout is a complete lack of exercise. Almost every IT company I have been to has a gym on the premises, but the gyms have no people inside,” says Sancheti who is regularly invited by Infosys, TCS and Satyam to talk to the employees about the need for the right posture and how to avoid back problems.

The fact that companies are acutely aware of this problem is evident. While IBM regularly send its employees emails on how to prevent backache, Cognizant has a full time doctor on the premises along with a yoga practitioner. Rajshri Tupe, who was employed by Cognizant a few years ago to take yoga classes and confirms the high incidence of spine problems says that even now as an independent yoga instructor she has her hands full with IT professionals who come to her with similar complaints.

“They have lost their flexibility which is what I try to restore through the various postures of Iyengar yoga,” she says. A case in point is 28-year-old Manish Konduskar, senior consultant at IBM who admits to developing back pain three years ago. “I realise my posture is wrong — one tends to hunch forward while working on the computer and with my working hours being something like 7 pm to 10 am, I just go on sitting in the same position for hours together,” says Konduskar who has found succor in yoga.

“A whole lot of my colleagues have a spine problem like me and some have even taking to wearing a split on their hands to prevent their wrists from developing the carpal tunnel syndrome,” he says.