Nourishing Schools was a project done with The Ashoka Foundation to help promote nutritional well being of undernourished children in Indian schools with a focus on government schools. The project's process involved interacting with schools and school children, and then developing prototypes and possible system changes.
During our research we came across the fact that one of the most important observations of the nutrition security debate has been that, “people’s food security (i.e. their physical and economic access to nutritionally adequate food) does not automatically translate into their nutritional well being. An individual’s nutritional status is thus determined by a number of interrelated factors, of which food security is only one. Two laws we came across stated that that as income increases, beyond a point, the share of expenditure on food declines and thatas income increases, consumers typically switch to a more expensive diet, substituting quality for quantity. So we started focussing on social motivation as a solution.
Working in groups we came up with a varied range of solutions. I was working in a group of two, with Varun Kurtkoti. Our solution was a three step process. Step one was visualizing the average BMI of all the children
in a class. Then plot it on a monthly basis on a highly visible wall inside the school premises (Taking the budget constraints of most government schools into consideration, this plotting could be done using chalk on a wall painted with blackboard paint.) This starts a sort of a discussion and excitement regarding the topic of BMI and health.
Step two involved using this new excitement and tapping the interest of children by using colourful cards with illustrations of food items that would help children reach optimum BMI and fortify their diet. These were to be like trump cards.
Some of the Cards. We kept the language simple so they could be translated to multiple Indian languages.
The third step would be to continuously reward the class that comes out as healthiest to keep them
excited about staying healthy and internalize the habits. The proposed incentives are extra play time
for a month (between BMI checks) or a field trip for the winning class. This would strengthen the first
two steps and provide a cycle.
This is a group prject done with Varun Kurtkoti in association with The Ashoka Foundation. It is currently in prototype stage. The final prototypes will be made in March,2014 and tested in government schools in the state of Maharashtra, India.
