There was an oily backlash to reports on Monday that the central government was mulling the imposition of health warnings on some of India’s favourite junk foods – samosas, jalebis, ladoos and the like – thus making them join the ranks of tobacco products.
But fear not. Tuesday saw the government’s media machine dismiss the report as false, or, as it was put, “misleading, incorrect and baseless”.
So, why the outrage?
India is facing very real dangers to its people’s health due to the food we eat. While a large proportion of the population is still struggling to access enough food, there is a growing section that is eating way more than it should. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise, bringing with them all manner of other health problems and risks.
It therefore makes some sense in slapping a few warnings on certain unhealthy foods in order to at least make us think twice before we help ourselves to another deep-fried plate of pakoras.
Indeed, some other countries have introduced mandates for restaurants to publish nutritional information on their menus so that customers are better informed about how many calories, for example, they are consuming.
However, India was not planning anything like this. Supposedly, a few government institutions were going to publish informational posters in their canteens to better educate their workforce on the snacks being served but there was no intention to require all sellers of samosas and other delicacies to publish such information or warnings against the snack food consumption.
Although governments are meant to protect the country’s citizens (even from themselves), they have to strike a balance. Too hands-off and society can go off the rails. Too hands-on, however, and the public will start pushing back. No one wants to live in a so-called “nanny state” where the government is constantly breathing down your neck, ostensibly to keep you safe.
In an ideal scenario, the people would be left to their own devices to do what is right for them. However, the cost of doing nothing is far too great, with India rapidly becoming one of the unhealthiest countries by diet in the world. This idea might have been overkill, or, perhaps, we would have all gotten used to the warnings on our gulab jamuns after a while, exactly how those who consume tobacco now accept the graphic visual warnings on packets of cigarettes, etc.
It would take a brave government to implement such a rule with junk food but give it enough time and the people of India would have quietened down. And, unfortunately, they would probably just ignore them, like we do with all manner of warnings in our day to day lives.
