Eating sugar? No, Madam

The CBSE seems peculiarly invested in the health of students, with focus on the "well-fed" and obese. In recent circulars, it has instructed the affiliated institutions to display 'Sugar Boards' and 'Oil Boards' in cafeterias, lobbies and meeting rooms. It has also directed that these advisories be printed on stationery and publications, ostensibly to serve as daily reminders in the fight against obesity. At first glance, the concern appears commendable.

But a closer look reveals curious chronological and methodological choices. The board claims to have based its directive on National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-21 data and a 2021 forecast study from the Lancet Global Burden of Disease (GBD), published in 2025. The data is over three years old, effectively placing the evidence eight years behind the present. Constructing urgent educational policy on such a temporal foundation is, at best, ambitious and, at worst, performative.

Even more striking is the selective interpretation of data. The GBD report notes that in 2016, 15% of India's disease burden stemmed from child and maternal undernutrition combined with air pollution. The CBSE, however, overlooked this and focussed on obesity despite the report's observation that obesity typically emerges in the post-school age.

India continues to grapple with wasting, stunting and underweight children, yet the CBSE seems to imagine classrooms brimming with obese adolescents whose existential threat is the school canteen samosa.

A hurried, or perhaps opportunistic, reading of NFHS-5 appears evident. Section 10.6, which discusses Nutritional Status in Adults, mentions that among women aged 15-49, 19% are underweight and 24% overweight.

However, thinness is far more common among younger women: 40 per cent of those aged 15-19, school-going age, are underweight, while obesity rises meaningfully only among women aged 40-49. Similarly, among men aged 15-19, a striking 41% are underweight, though, in the overall male population, 16% are underweight and 23% overweight.

In other words, the sugar and oil boards in schools are likely to mock rather than assist the children they are meant to protect.

Government records corroborate this misalignment. Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha in March 2025, the government confirmed that, according to NFHS (2019-21), 35.5% of the children under five are stunted, 32% underweight and 19.3% wasted. Out of 13.75 crore children, only 7.49 crore are enrolled in anganwadis or tracked under the Poshan Tracker — an oversight in a nation where malnutrition is a critical concern.

Nearly all of the 10 most populous states have over 40% stunted and 20% underweight children. Yet the CBSE, with its 37,091 affiliated schools (a small fraction of the 15 lakh schools nationwide), directs attention toward the relatively minor phenomenon of school-age obesity.

Contrast this with the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, PM-POSHAN. Beyond improving enrolment, the programme is premised on the recognition that many children lack access to adequate nutrition at home. It provides 450 calories and 12 grams of protein daily to students in classes I-V and 700 calories and 20 grams of protein to those in classes VI-VIII. In 2025, the Central government allocated Rs 12,500 crore, 60% of total funds, to this scheme, underscoring the efforts to address malnutrition.

And yet, the same nation now has a central education board obsessed with overconsumption and overnutrition. While India struggles with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM), attempting to reduce wasting, stunting, anaemia and underweight prevalence, the CBSE's proposed intervention consists of the rather minimalist directive to cut down on sugar and oil.

This is a country that "celebrates" POSHAN Maah and Pakhwada (nutrition month and fortnight), and 'Tithi Bhojan' (special meals on festive days), yet fails to make nutrition universally accessible.

The CBSE's circular erases the reality that India ranks among the highest globally in child malnutrition. This policy overlooks the fact that for many kids, the struggle is absence rather than excess. For the CBSE, the problem no longer seems to be the empty plate in a government school, but the extra puri on a private school lunch tray.

Navneet Sharma is Assistant Professor at Central University of HP & Anamica is a Senior Research Fellow at IIT-Bombay.