Jung Against Junk: SNEHA Takes Nutrition Awareness to Mumbai Communities During Festive Season
Upasana Kaura
Festivals often bring families together around food. But for young people, the festive season can also mean greater exposure to fried snacks, sugary drinks and other forms of junk food.
This Poshan Maah, Mumbai-based Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA), a SNEHA NGO nutrition campaign, is taking its nutrition message directly into communities through its city-wide #JungAgainstJunk campaign. The Jung Against Junk Mumbai initiative aims to make conversations about food choices and nutrition more accessible to young people and families.
The initiative aims to help young people understand the importance of nutritious food, particularly during adolescence, when good nutrition plays an important role in healthy growth and development. The campaign will also focus on iron-rich foods to help address anaemia and encourage families to find healthier alternatives to junk food. Through junk food awareness among children, SNEHA hopes to encourage young people to think more carefully about the food they consume.
SNEHA plans to reach more than 3,000 families this year across vulnerable communities in Mumbai.
Taking Nutrition Awareness Into the Community
The campaign has partnered with more than 19 Ganesh Mandals across Dharavi, Kandivali, Kalwa, Mankhurd, Govandi, Mumbra and Wadala.
Rather than relying only on conventional awareness sessions, SNEHA volunteers and government officials will use community activities to make conversations around nutrition more accessible to young people and families.
The programme will include Nutrition Thali and Bazaar activities, puppet shows, street plays, film screenings, games and other community events. These activities will share practical information about healthy diets and encourage families to think about their food choices during festivals and beyond.
The campaign also brings community members into the conversation. Its focus is not simply on telling young people what not to eat, but on helping them understand why nutritious food matters and how they can make healthier choices in everyday life. This approach supports healthy eating habits for teenagers by making nutrition education practical and relevant to their daily lives.
Young People Can Help Break the Cycle
Dr. Rama Shyam, Programme Director, Empowerment, Health and Sexuality of Adolescents, SNEHA, said the organisation’s earlier community-led work showed the value of sustained collaboration between communities and public health systems.
“In a recent survey that we had conducted, we observed how through community-driven interventions and collaborative efforts with the government, there were significant improvements in maternal and child health through our sustained efforts,” she said.
According to Dr. Shyam, these efforts helped communities address malnutrition and anaemia while encouraging greater use of public health services.
With the festive season underway, SNEHA wants to build on those gains. Dr. Shyam said the campaign aims to promote healthier eating habits among young people and maintain the momentum achieved through earlier interventions.
She also highlighted the longer-term goal of encouraging young people to adopt responsible eating habits as they grow into adulthood.
Community Action Shows Measurable Progress
SNEHA’s recently released report, Sustaining Impact Through Partnerships 2026, highlights changes recorded between 2021 and 2026 through community-driven and public-system interventions.
According to the report, stunting declined from 30% to 21%, while wasting fell from 14% to 11% and underweight declined from 28% to 22%.
The report also recorded an increase in appropriate maternal referrals. The proportion of pregnant women confirmed to have reached the appropriate referral facility rose from 76% to 87%.
These figures provide context for SNEHA’s current campaign. The organisation now wants to sustain these improvements by involving communities more actively in conversations around nutrition and health, particularly in areas affected by malnutrition in urban slums India.
Making Healthy Choices Part of Everyday Life
The #JungAgainstJunk campaign comes at a time when food habits are increasingly shaped by convenience, availability and changing lifestyles.
For adolescents, nutrition is particularly important because their bodies undergo significant physical growth and development during this period. Encouraging young people to understand the value of balanced meals and nutritious alternatives can help build habits that continue into adulthood.
SNEHA’s campaign uses festivals as an opportunity to start that conversation. By taking activities into neighbourhoods and partnering with local community groups, the organisation hopes to make nutrition awareness part of everyday discussions rather than a message limited to health centres or classrooms.
This focus on practical nutrition education for adolescents can help young people understand the connection between food, growth and overall wellbeing, while giving families useful information they can apply at home.
The larger goal goes beyond one festive season. By encouraging young people and families to make informed food choices and reduce their reliance on junk food, community-led programmes such as #JungAgainstJunk aim to support healthier households and help break the cycle of poor nutrition across generations.
