This week, nutrition scientists will turn to acting as they tour villages to convey crucial messages that they hope will check the rising rate of non-communicable diseases.
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) will ply an ornately-decorated vehicle, with scientists and students aboard, to villages around Greater Hyderabad. Educational material displayed from atop the bus will serve to communicate nutrition messages, and where specific nutritional-issues need attention, plays have been planned. “In urban peripheries, we have planned street plays through mime to show the harm that ill-timed intake of high-calorie diet like biryani-snacking, a popular practise in the city, can cause. This play, for instance, will include an individual playing one leading a sedentary lifestyle,” says N. Harishankar.
For scientists like Dr. Harishankar, an animal physiologist, who supervises experiments involving animals at the institute, the transition from scientist to actor is not difficult. “Street play for awareness was initiated years ago by NIN scientists. We have video recordings of past plays. Our performances in the coming week will revive a practise that was dormant for many years,” he says.
The NIN will complete 100 years on September 26. To mark the occasion, over 700 people from the institute in Tarnaka will walk for nutrition awareness. A street-play is also planned at Tarnaka crossroads.
