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Pestering bans
When health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is done with his ban of colas, the cola giants will still be making healthy profits.
When health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is done with his ban of colas, the cola giants will still be making healthy profits. Simply because bans, by and large, make the target all the more attractive. It’s old wisdom that all that tastes good is bad for you. So, now that the good minister has decided to convert the earlier restraint directive into a blanket ban on the sale of colas and fast food in school and college, what are the beverages ‘healthy’ enough for kids to drink? Nimbu pani? But isn’t pani where half the problem lies? After all, the unhealthy carbonated drinks became complete no-nos only after high levels of pesticides were found in them, Aamir Khan’s proclamations notwithstanding. As for the glucose that glugged down via colas, teenagers do know that it triggers only pseudo-energy and tips the balance way too much. But they’ve also been told that juices are just as bad, and that the milk they drink has unacceptably high levels of DDT. That leaves us with only water to drink — and it also brings us back to square one. There’s, of course, another beverage. In Belgium, scientists have prescribed that ale for teens is a healthier drink than any other existing one. But that will conflict with a Directive Principles in our Constitution.
In India, the entire food chain is fairly uniformly contaminated. Periodic studies throw up more bad news about the composition of what we eat — from DDT in milk, to cadmium in spinach, the list only grows. The situation is, no doubt, alarming. Obesity among upper middle-class children is as crippling for the nation as are the millions of malnourished ones — either end of the spectrum forms a part of the glorious and much-touted young India.
Surely, it is moderation of fast food intake that must be encouraged. Schools should not be required to send home circulars with tiffin-content dos and don’ts. Where parents need to be educated as much as kids need to practise self-discipline, banning colas and junk foods will take the nation’s health only so far. Also, who will enforce this ban is anybody’s guess. The police? Or do we create a new army of inspectors?
The minister’s concern to enforce healthy practices is appreciated. But his modus operandi, unfortunately, bespeaks of an intent for fast results. Consumption of fast food and colas is as much a matter of convenience for parents and children, as habit. But it does seem that in imposing bans, even the minister is opting for the convenient way out. To prove us otherwise, he could begin by insisting on a definition of potable water for India.
