UGC asks college canteens to take fast food off menus MPs cold-shoulder consultation meet on education policy

The more the restrictions, the higher the chances we’ll do the exact opposite. If we don’t find food in the canteen, students will opt for smaller joints outside, which won’t be clean. At least our canteen serves clean food.

MUMBAI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a circular on Thursday evening asking colleges to stop serving junk food in their canteens.

“Banning junk food in colleges will set new standards for health food and make the students live better, learn better, and also reduce obesity levels in young learners, thus preventing lifestyle diseases, which have a direct link with excessive weight,” states the circular available on www.ugc.ac.in.

The UGC is a statutory body to coordinate, determine, and maintain the standards of higher education. While circulars released by it are not binding, affiliated universities/colleges are expected to follow the rules as prescribed by the body.

Apart from asking colleges to implement better food standards on their campuses, the circular has suggestions that institutes can follow to implement the circular.

While the circular does not define ‘junk food’, circulars by other boards of education, including Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), refer to junk food as “items that are high on calories but low on nutrients”.

For starters, colleges have been asked to display information on markers like body mass SACHIT RAMESH, Student, Mithibai College, Vile Parle

index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, etc. Orientation programmes have been recommended for staff as well as students so as to put across the point to the youth as soon as possible. Students have also been asked to form clusters among themselves and counsel each other about proper nutrition, exercise as well as other healthy habits.

While colleges have given a thumbs-up to the initiative, many thought that banning junk food will not help much. “Creating awareness about healthy eating is something all colleges can easily adopt, and this can help students understand the problem. Unless students practice self-restraint , simply banning something will not help the cause,” said Vijay Joshi, principal of K J Somaiya College, Vidya Vihar. NEW DELHI: There were less than 40 MPs when the first parliamentary consultation on the proposed New Education Policy (NEP) started here on Thursday morning.

All Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs were invited for the discussion on the proposed policy that sparked off an anti-BJP tirade among opposition parties, which alleged that the governing party is trying to impose its pet ideas in school textbooks.

In the meeting convened by human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar, DMK leader Tiruchi Siva slammed the Centre for trying to push Sanskrit. “Sanskrit is not the mother language of India, it is Tamil,” he said, opening up an old debate.

Many MPs asked the minister not to rush through the policy but talk to more stakeholders. Javadekar assured them that nothing would be done in haste and the government would also form a panel of experts to take the consultations further.