A city school now has a special bell that rings not as a signal for teachers to end their lessons or for the students to go for lunch but as a reminder for everyone in the school to drink water.
Indus Valley World School rings the “water bell” thrice a day reminding students and the school staff to drink water.
When the water bell rings for five seconds, teachers stop their lessons giving students time to drink water.
Everyone present in the school pauses what they are doing to drink some water.
“We want to develop a healthy habit of drinking water because during the day we get so engrossed in our work that we forget to drink water or we do not drink water at all,” said Amita Prasad, director of the school.
“Once it becomes a habit, we might not need to ring the bell at all,” she said.
The school started this initiative when classes resumed after Diwali.
Across schools, some students would finish their bottles and refill them several times during the day. While others would not even finish the water they bought from home.
There are children across schools who do not drink water to avoid using the washroom.
Doctors said that every person has a different water requirement and it should not be made compulsory for anyone. Water can be either the most tasty or most tasteless thing depending on the body’s requirement at a point of time.
“Every person, including children, has a different water requirement and drinks water as and when they require. It is completely need-based and the body will balance it out as per its requirement and strength of the kidney,” said Apurba Ghosh, director, the Institute of Child Health.
Paediatrician B.K. Manocha said that the body’s requirement of water varied from season to season as well.
The school said that they understood that everyone’s requirement of water was different and nobody was being compelled to drink water.
“Sometimes someone might take a sip and another person or student might
drink more water. We understand it is completely need-based. We are neither forcing anyone nor defining the quantity of water one should drink. This is only a reminder and never a compulsion,” said Prasad.
“We have also received emails from some parents appreciating the initiative,” she said.