Hello folks,
It has been a while since we last met, hasn’t it? Well, I am going to lay the blame squarely on His Highness, our Panditji, who else? And will do so without feeling even a twinge of guilt. Now please don’t misunderstand him. He looks forward to meeting you every month as eagerly as I do. But this time the man had disappeared without a trace for days. Then, just as I was gearing up to call all of you and launch a massive manhunt, he reappeared like a genie. One look at him and I began to wish he had remained lost (at least from sight). His face was dark as thunder and he was muttering to himself. Where was he?
Panditjispeak : Well if you must know I was at the Delhi High Court, keeping a close vigil. Has your mouth fallen open? Are you staring at me in horror? Don’t. I was there not as a defendant with a case slapped against me or even as a plaintiff, lodging charges against someone. At least not this time. I was there as to unearth vital information. And I was digging up (or trying very hard to dig up) data on the report submitted by a Committee set up by the Delhi government in September 2013 under the orders of the High Court. Its task was to help frame guidelines for food being sold or distributed in schools or in their vicinity. The main purpose, let me tell you, was to help the government make a decision. Should junk food be banned from anywhere within the sniffing distance of a school student?
Make a decision
Now why is it so difficult to make up one’s mind about this one? Isn’t there enough evidence already to show that ready-to-eat ‘snacks’ with an overdose of salt, sugar and fat, have a lasting and decidedly nasty impact on the mind and body of a consumer? Especially the younger ones, who are always eager to try out something new.
A fairly large section of the group — eminent paediatricians, nutritionists and public health specialists — who had been invited to be a part of it, took no time at all. Ban the junk, they said. And stop the junk-makers from putting up bill boards carrying alluring visuals in school compounds, they added for good measure. So far so good.
Then came the unexpected blow. There is nothing wrong with the food, said the rest of the Committee. The children are obese, stricken with diabetes and various other heart and nerve-related diseases, because they just don’t have enough physical activity! Make them hop, skip and jump and then let them stuff their faces with ‘snacks’. In fact, the extra helping of salt, sugar and fat will give them that extra burst of energy.
Who are these people, did you ask? They are members of two associations representing the food industry in the Committee. Sounds harmless enough? Yes indeed. But what if I told you that among them, skilfully embedded, are two corporate heavyweights. One employed by the world’s most powerful beverage company, and the other by a Swedish food giant.
Not so harmless after all...huh? No, not by a long shot.
Pandit Gobar Ganesh
What should the Court do? Share your opinion with us. Write to Sumita@cseindia.org
The writer is Editor, Gobar Times, Centre for Science and Environment.
