Mumbai college launches health awareness programme

Mithibai College in Mumbai found that a vast number of its students were suffering from low haemoglobin levels.

A routine blood donation drive conducted by Mithibai College in Vile Parle opened the eyes of the management to a bigger problem at hand – 80 per cent of students not eligible to donate blood had low haemoglobin levels.

A health awareness drive in session at Mithibai College in Vile Parle. (HT Photo)

“Although, close to 400 students were interested in donating blood, 187 students were not eligible to donate. 80% of these students had low haemoglobin levels,” said Rajpal Hande, principal. The institute saw the need for more awareness.

Within a week, 25 teachers from the microbiology, biotechnology and biochemistry departments carved out a health awareness programme.

A survey of students’ eating habits pointed out that most of them skip breakfast.

“Our lectures begin at 7am and most students told us how they skip breakfast on most days and end up eating post 10-11am on most days,” said Nupur Mehrotra, vice principal.

“In the first phase of this awareness drive, we are focusing on making students aware of the symptoms and consequences of low haemoglobin and diseases related to it such as anaemia,” she added. In the past one week, nearly 5,400 students have been tapped. “In January, we will start the second phase where nutritionists and dieticians can throw light on healthy eating,” said Mehrotra.

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