City Know-hows
We looked at the Indian School Children and Junk Food Prohibition regulation in a part of New Delhi. Do schools comply with this well-thought-out regulation prohibiting sales and promotion of food with added sodium, sugar, saturated fat, and trans-fat? Our study looks at the prevention obesity and malnutrition and covers local school environments too.
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Target audience
World Health Organisation; The Indian Government, Minister of Health and Family Welfare in India and beyond, including similar posts in state authorities; principals of Schools and Colleges in Delhi, India.
The problem
India enacted the Food Safety (Safe food and balanced diets for children in school) Regulations in 2020. This requires actions by schools including prohibiting sale and promotion of foods with added sugar, sodium, trans-fat, and saturated fats. Schools are also required to install signboards prohibiting sale of unhealthy foods and appoint food counsellors and healthy food ambassadors. But no study has comprehensively checked the compliance of the regulation in detail.
What we did and why
We used India’s transparency law to obtain information from schools in a district within the capital city of New Delhi in India. Data was compiled from 49 public run schools in India. We found that compliance was dismal. This is crucial because a well-intentioned law or regulation needs to be put into action and regularly monitored. In case of non-compliance, there should be checks and balances for health and safety.
Our study’s contribution
Our study comprehensively investigated all the aspects of the law and is not restricted to just one or two compliance issues, as many studies before may have been. This study also obtained views from the people responsible for implementing the law, and is free from researcher bias. The study also looks at some health effects of unhealthy food for school children – while providing recommendations to deal with the problems.
Impacts for city policy and practice
Our study is critical in highlighting the need for a regulation to ensure healthy food for school children in the face of high childhood obesity and malnutrition occurring at the same time. The need for this extant and well-intentioned law to be implemented in a more robust manner is highlighted. It is evident that a lack of teeth or penalties means that these regulations may remain a paper tiger. There is a need to make stricter laws.
For further information, search for the full text: The Food Safety and Standards (Safe food and balanced diets for children in school) Regulations, 2020 [English Text starts page 5] on the Indian government webpages.
Further information
Full research article:
[OPEN ACCESS] Study of compliance of law on healthy and balanced diets by schools in a district of New Delhi, India by Raja Singh, Rima Dada & Arthur L Frank
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