insight
How healthy is IITB?
check on messes, we have not seen it happening so far. Associate Wardens are also supposed to visit his appointed mess regularly, which, too, rarely happens. When we looked into the mess tenders that mess contractors are meant to follow, we were appalled to find that certain hygiene regulations enlisted in the mess contracts are dismissed, such as: 1. Provision of paper napkins when fried food is served. 2. Provision of clean towels and soap near hand-wash areas
Aishwarya Chandrasheker Amuda, Aishwarya Rawat, Chirag Chadha, Deepak Dilipkumar, Leffin Christopher, Niranjan Thakurdesai, Shreerang Javadekar, Shreya Sridhar, Vikas Kurapati
Between running groggy-eyed to classes, preparing for GCs and other extra-curricular activities and, of course, the constant pressure of academics, an average IIT-B student barely takes care of his/her health. Simply a case of bad habits? Findings from our survey (with 428 respondents) show that a large fraction of students skip breakfast often. Where sleep is concerned, most get only 5 to 7 hours of sleep as opposed to the widely accepted figure of 8 hours. Coming to physical activities, walking or cycling to class is the most rigorous physical activity in the week for 41% of the students, although a reasonable 56% do indulge in some form of exercise. Here are the exact details: How often do you have breakfast?
Count of How often do you have breakfast?
Always Most of the time Never Rarely
How many hours of sleep do you get everyday?
Count of How many hours of sleep do you get everyday?
>9 1-3 3-5 5-7 7-9
What is the highest level you have achieved in a sport? Count of What is the highest level you have achieved in a sport? Casual Play I don't play sports Inter IIT National NSO/GC State
What a Mess! ‘You are what you eat’. Apparently, IIT Bombay is a boring, bland combination of the same ol’ dal-chaawal-sabji.
While most hostel messes have a nutritionist whom they are supposed to consult prior to making the menu, the nutritionist is neither consulted nor are the necessary dietary changes always feasible for implementation. Most good mess councils ensure that fines (as per the mess tender) are imposed when poor quality of supplies, unclean utensils, etc. come to their notice. Regardless of their best efforts, most residents can still find a spoon with the previous day’s kheer on it. Most students don’t complain and most complaints don’t make it to the complaint registers (which the mess workers themselves manage).
end of winter) as well as the vaccination drives that are conducted at these times. Mental health - it’s not as simple as it looks Insight had a brief talk with Mrs Amita Tagare, the student counselor at the Office of Dean, Student Affairs, about the factors affecting mental health of students. According to her, students find themselves stressed out quite frequently, as they are tested throughout the sem. It’s difficult for many to accept that they are not going to be near the top all the time, as opposed to their preIIT days. Add parental pressure to that and a student starts to withdraw. Also, in their freshmen year, several students start choosing from a garden of extra-curricular activities, neglecting their academics in the process. This neglect entails bad grades and consequently, anxiety and depression, which can induce a vicious cycle - leading to reduced self-confidence and deteriorating mental health over time. On the other hand, there are also family and financial problems, infatuation, heartbreaks. Socializing and communication is also an issue. How many cigarettes do you smoke everyday? Count of How many cigarettes do you smoke everyday?
>10
A look into the fines imposed on the Hostel-10 mess contractor reveals a rather sorry state of affairs. A total fine of around Rs. 50,000 has been imposed in the month of March 2014 alone, while the total mess fee collected per month from hostel-10 inmates (who constitute only half of the total strength of people eating at the Hostel-10 mess) alone is a whopping 9 lacs. Perhaps a revamping of the fine structure in the mess tender might invite graver circumstances upon mess contractors in the wake of their lackadaisical efforts. About diseases A visit to the IITB hospital confirmed that viral flu is indeed the most common illness on campus. Typhoid, Hepatitis A, MMR and chickenpox were also once prevalent and hence are hence compulsorily required to be vaccinated against. Incidences of diseases like malaria and dengue, though prevalent in the campus, have shown a decline since 2009-10 while the increase in tuberculosis cases is alarming. The skewed biological clocks of a vast majority of students are a cause of health-related issues like hyperacidity and indigestion. Body aches and digestion-related problems are commonly reported throughout the year. Mid semester and end semester times entail increased reports of issues like palpitation, anxiety, sweating and sleeplessness. Based on our survey, here’s what students think about their stress levels: Compiled on the basis of data collected from the IITB hospital, the graph at the bottom illustrates the frequency of students visiting the hospital in each month from 2011 to 2013. We can see that the number of students visiting the hospital shoots up during two periods : August-SeptemberOctober and January-February. This sudden rise can be attributed to seasonal changes (end of monsoons and
Most senior students tend to write off our mess food as tasteless. We ventured to find out if the messes are able to redeem themselves, at least in terms of nutrition and hygiene. Unsurprisingly, our findings were not very positive.
1-2 3-5 6-10 I don't smoke
How often do you consume alcohol?
Count of How often do you consume alcohol?
Daily I don't drink Once a month Once a week Only occasionaly
Excessive mental stress requires some sort of release, and some students find this release through smoking or drinking. Mrs Tagare talks about students coming to her for rehabilitation following alcohol abuse. Depicted above are some statistics about the smoking and drinking habits of IITB students. Conclusions The survey we conducted did, to some extent, validate the general perception that students on campus don’t bother about their health to a great extent. However, it is encouraging to see that some percentage of students do take exercise seriously. Addictions like smoking and drinking don’t appear to plague the student population to a great extent. Most of our unhealthy behaviour is encompassed in apathetic nutrition habits and erratic sleep cycles. While there is definitely room for improvement, the health habits of students on campus are not really unexpected in a late-teens / early 20’s college population. u
5000 4500 4000
AOnmess secretary from Hostel 7 do informed usinthat the an average, how many meals you have a day?
3500
On average, how many meals do you have in a day? 3000
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2500
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2000
Visit Stats
students visiting 1000 the hospital per month in the
only criterion for deciding the mess menu is, surprisingly, taste! Although many contesting GSHA have promised a special committee to conduct a nutrition
1500
Number of
years 2011-2013
500 0
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