Junk in schools

I spent the last two days working with the management, children, teachers, and parents of a major school in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. Since this was my first time to the state, in fact just my second to the region (North East India) itself, there was much I had to learn and understand about the people, the culture, parental mind-sets, etc. Pros and cons of things like Inner Line Permit (ILP) started to make more sense when sitting here, rather than when reading about it on wiki lounging in my cosy couch in Bangalore. And since the place is so cut off from the rest of the country, boys and girls were very curious to find out more about me and Bangalore. ‘Are there really super cars like Maserati in Bangaore?’ one of them asked. ‘What is your height?’ was a very common question – A 6-footer like me in this land where height is not the forte of most people, must have been an amusing sight.

One of the first things that was shocking to me, both in this school and in another school in nearby Assam, is the amount of junk food that was freely available not just outside the school campuses, but even within. Small shops set up inside school campuses sell everything from frozen ice colas to multiple varieties of chips, to 2-ltr bottles of soda (Pepsi being the favorite). Kids start coming to school at around 730 after their breakfast and go home by 230. And all they have in the interim is the junk from the canteen. The schools have been doing nothing to promote good food habits.

‘It is a recent phenomenon,’ says one administrator. ‘Started probably a decade back. In-fact many adults took to colas to avoid alcohol, so in one way this is the lesser of the two evils that they are choosing.’ He was only part joking.

‘My son will be waiting for me to go home. Soon as I reach, he will tell me he is thirsty and force me to give him some Pepsi,’ complained a parent. During the breaks, it is a common sight to see kids move around carrying small packets of Kurkure or Aalu bhujia.

When me and my friends who were visiting the school pointed this out to the management, teachers, parents, and students, they immediately acknowledged the issue. What was refreshing was the Principal’s ‘First of all I am at fault here,’ attitude. He straight away declared that he should have done more and requested the help of his teachers to make things better. One common (partial) misconception that the management had was that the parents were all of no good, that they were only interested in getting rid of their kids for the major portion of the day time and that they couldn’t care less what the school did with them.

Conversation with a few parents just before the assembly started somewhat confirmed this attitude, but not all parents were like this. One father spoke vociferously about the need for parents to not just stop pandering to their children’s wants, but also spoke of the school’s responsibility to teach them good eating habits. He also spoke of how when parents organise get-togethers the standard drink was Pepsi or Coke and connected this to the addiction that children seem to have for these drinks. The school was clearly generalising parent behaviour and therefore missing out on good opportunities to engage with the willing partners.

The students themselves didn’t really understand what was happening. They were too in the moment to see the larger picture of their health getting spoilt. But many did, on probing, admit to their inability to stay even day without having any of these foods or drinks.

The last two days were very fruitful, what with representatives from different stakeholder groups getting together and figuring out ways to improve this situation both at school and at home. Parents spoke enthusiastically of their responsibilities, students wanted to first change their own habits before they would go preach the behaviour to their friends in not only their schools but also nearby schools, teachers agreed to inculcate discussions on good eating habits in their curriculum, and the management decided to work with the canteen worker and slowly phase out junk food and replace it with healthy, tasty alternatives instead. The energy in the group was palpable and the respect that everyone showed for each other was amazing. Each group went off with a clear takeaway and there was a lot of hope in that room that afternoon.

It is not easy to change habits and culture of an entire society, but it is the responsibility of a school to not blindly tow the lines of the society but to measure it acutely, and mirror only what is reasonable. It should otherwise aim to weed out the evils and to change parental mind-sets through their children. In this school the first step has been made. Hope it gets healthier soon!