Follow us
Call it UGC's concerns for the health of students or a move to ban junk food, the nodal higher education body in its recent directives wrote to 600 universities across the country asking them to keep a tab on the health indices of the students while collecting data on their body mass index, ratio of waist and hip, weight and other related information.
Also Read: Introduce NCC As Elective Subject: UGC to Varsities
Officials of the UGC maintained that the move to ban the junk food would help reduce obesity levels and help the students to live a better and healthy life. The proposed measures as part of the move include-
- Staff and faculty members of the Universities would have to be trained under its orientation programmes on health issues
- Student welfare departments will have to conduct counselling sessions on nutrition and exercise
- Workshops will need to be conducted on healthy habits
Most of the campus canteens dish out a mix of both junk food and nutritious meals. Some of the popular choices of the students are - french fries, rolls, cutlets, hot samosas, chicken biryani, masala dosa, north and south Indian meals.
A student of Bangalore University said that the university is spoilt for choice!
Also Read: UGC Eases Guidelines for Indian Universities to Form Alliance with Foreign Varsities
Malavika M, a postgraduate student of Christ University said that students eagerly wait for the next academic year to find out which caterer has joined the canteens of the University. The University has a cafeteria that serves fruits, sandwiches and juices. It is not that students are eating junk all the time.
For the students of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore , its canteens offer vegetarian, non-vegetarian and junk food. Several students say that they prefer both junk and fast food to accommodate their time in busy schedules of the day.
