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Interviews | Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor who advocates for balanced diet, interviewed by Rohitha Naraharisetty (TheSwaddle.com)
Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor who advocates for balanced diet, interviewed by Rohitha Naraharisetty (TheSwaddle.com)

Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor who advocates for balanced diet, interviewed by Rohitha Naraharisetty (TheSwaddle.com)

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published Published on Jul 14, 2022   modified Modified on Jul 17, 2022

-TheSwaddle.com

A position paper drafted by a committee of experts under the National Education Policy recommended removing meat and eggs from the midday meal scheme in schools, which is one of the mainstays of children’s nutrition in the country. The committee made some dubious claims pertaining to lifestyle, genetics, and discrimination in justifying the policy — revealing the inherent casteist roots of food politics in India.

The Swaddle’s Rohitha Naraharisetty spoke to Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor who advocates against the exclusion of certain foods and debunks casteist myths about them.

The Swaddle: The government, in its position paper, justified this policy saying that for the “small body frame of Indians, any extra energy provided through cholesterol by regular consumption of eggs and meat will lead to lifestyle disorders.” How do we debunk this notion?

Dr. Sylvia Karpagam: So first of all, the body size of Indians is not a standard. If Indians are given adequate, good quality, diverse, nutrient-dense foods that constitute a well-balanced diet, they wouldn’t have small frames. If you compare populations in India that have had good food over generations, they have consistently shown an increase in height. If some Indians have a smaller frame, it’s not something that we should just dismiss as a given — we should actually ask why so many Indians have a small frame when it’s possible to have better heights and weights. The small frame is because of stunting in childhood and because the mother never received adequate nutrition during pregnancy and her adolescent years. So the role of the government — through the educational system — is to make sure that people have both accurate knowledge about nutrition, and also access to all nutritious foods.

Stunting is specifically due to protein deficiency, but this is not a standalone deficiency in India. Most children in India have multi-nutrient malnutrition, because of which they have stunting and a lot of other problems — they are more likely to fall sick and have respiratory infections or diarrheal diseases more often. People blame this on poor sanitation — but even children in the same circumstances, if they were well nourished, are better able to handle infections.

These are the children who grow up with abnormal processing of sugar — insulin is not secreted adequately, and they are more likely to have non-communicable diseases later on in life. So it’s not exactly a lifestyle disease — policymakers are just placing the burden on individuals. We’re not holding the nutritional policies accountable. On the one hand, the government is opening up the markets, giving corporate contracts, and bringing in highly processed products. At the same time, they also bring in laws to criminalize what people are traditionally eating. It’s not a problem of lifestyle, it’s a problem of policy.

So the “small frame” idea hides a whole system of neglect that the child has gone through. And I think the governments, doctors, and researchers who are making policy should be held accountable for it.

Please click here to read more. 

Image Courtesy: Twitter account of Dr. Sylvia Karpagam


TheSwaddle.com, 14 July, 2022, https://theswaddle.com/why-is-removing-meat-and-eggs-from-school-midday-meals-casteist-we-ask-an-expert/


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