CBSE's school initiative on sugar promising, but needs holistic backup

The Central Board of Secondary Education’s  (CBSE’s) directive earlier this month to all affiliated schools to establish dedicated sugar boards by July 15 is a creative way to instil lessons about the dangers of sugar-loaded diets and the virtues of healthy eating. Health problems among children related to increasingly carbohydrate- and sugar-heavy diet are verging on a national crisis. A 2024 study showed the prevalence of pre-diabetes, or Type 2 diabetes, was 12.3 per cent and 8.4 per cent in adolescent Indian girls and boys, respectively. South Asia in general, and India in particular, are emerging as the world’s diabetes hotspots. The CBSE’s directive, therefore, has not come a moment too soon. 

 

These boards are primarily meant to act as educational tools. Schools are expected to create information and creative displays that highlight the recommended daily sugar intake for children, sugar content in commonly consumed snacks and beverages, health risks associated with high sugar consumption, and healthy alternatives. Such programmes are a necessary first step towards building awareness and acknowledgement of the problem. They need, however, to be followed up with important initiatives. Introducing active lifestyles for a generation of children increasingly addicted to mobile phones and TV would be a critical first step. Longer physical-training classes in the curriculum and mandatory sports participation after school would be a good start. A common problem here is that schools catering for less affluent households often lack playing fields for children to participate in games and sports. In this respect, it may be a good idea for the CBSE to include, as part of its recognition criteria, access to playing fields and facilities, which can be rented or borrowed from other schools and institutions. Influencing parents and household elders would be another critical step. Children can be receptive to progressive thinking, but their choices are frequently overridden by indulgent parents.

 

Building a critical mass of awareness, therefore, will be vital if the CBSE’s move is to go beyond merely ticking a socially correct box. Without an enduring reward and penalty system, for instance, this initiative could easily fizzle out. The fact that teachers across the country have vocally supported the initiative is an encouraging start. In fact, the sugar board would be a useful initiative for other national boards and state governments to take up in schools that fall within their purview, even as they seek to introduce balanced diets in mid-day meal schemes. This move would gel with a trend in Western nations where federal and state authorities are attempting to introduce healthy meal options in government-aided schools in response to the emerging childhood obesity crisis. In her stint as the United States First Lady, Michelle Obama adopted as her signature programme the campaign to make children eat healthy, starting a vegetable garden in the White House for them to cultivate. A national education movement of the type that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched to promote millet consumption could also go a long way in furthering the cause of healthy diets for children. India’s growing prosperity, enabling more households’ disposable incomes to buy more junk food, should not become the cause of a serious health crisis for the country’s future population.