Food, Water and Shelter in EVS: Food Habits, Water Sources and Conservation, Houses in Different Regions

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Food and why food habits differ

In EVS, food is studied as part of daily life and culture, not as a list of nutrients. All food comes from plants or animals; people in different regions eat differently because of what grows there, the climate and custom; and needs change with age, from a baby's milk to soft food for an old person with few teeth. In class IV, Basva's Farm follows an onion crop in a Karnataka village from sowing to harvest, and From Market to Home follows Vaishali's family of vegetable sellers and asks which vegetables spoil quickly and which keep for some days. A Seed tells a Farmer's Story (class V) compares older farming, with home-saved seeds and manure, with newer farming that uses bought seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and much more water.

Cooking, tasting and keeping food

What is Cooking (class III) covers foods eaten raw and cooked, ways of cooking such as boiling, frying, roasting and steaming, utensils of iron, brass, aluminium, steel and clay, and what gives the heat for cooking; The Story of Food asks who cooks and who serves in the family. From Tasting to Digesting (class V) teaches the tastes the tongue senses (sweet, salty, sour and bitter), that digestion begins in the mouth with saliva, and the story of Alexis St. Martin, left with a hole in his stomach by a gunshot in 1822, through which Dr William Beaumont studied how the stomach digests food; it also asks why many children go hungry. Mangoes Round the Year covers food spoiling, the fungus on stale bread, and keeping food by sun-drying (aam papad) and with salt, sugar or oil, as in pickles.

Water, its sources and its problems

Rain is the main source of fresh water; it fills rivers, lakes and ponds and seeps underground, from where wells, hand pumps and tube wells draw it. Water O' Water! and Drop by Drop (class III) look at the uses of water, who fetches it, and how it is stored and saved. A River's Tale (class IV) follows a river from the hills to the plains and shows how waste and factories make it dirty; Too Much Water, Too Little Water deals with unsafe drinking water, a water park beside villagers who have no water, and the children's panchayat Bhima Sangh in Karnataka, which revived an old tank. Experiments with Water (class V) lets children find out what floats, sinks or dissolves, and mentions the Dead Sea, so salty that people float in it. A Treat for Mosquitoes links stagnant water with disease: malaria spreads through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito (Ronald Ross showed its role at Secunderabad in 1897 and received the Nobel Prize in 1902), while dengue is spread by the Aedes mosquito, which breeds in clean water collected in coolers, tyres and pots.

Saving water, old and new

Every Drop Counts (class V) shows that people in India have long collected rainwater: stepwells (baolis), tanks and lakes such as Ghadsisar in Jaisalmer, made by King Ghadsi about 650 years ago, and covered underground tanks (kund or tanka) in the Rajasthan desert that store rain running off a clean, sloping catchment or a roof. A good lesson starts from the children's own homes: where our water comes from, who brings it and from how far, how it is stored, and how it is kept clean by covering, filtering or boiling.

Shelter and why houses differ

Houses differ with climate, the materials found nearby, the work people do, the dangers of a place and what families can afford. Chhotu's House and A House Like This (class III) introduce many kinds of homes. In class IV, Changing Times is told by Chetandas, whose family came from Dera Gazikhan (now in Pakistan) at Partition and built a mud house in Haryana; over sixty years it changed to unbaked bricks and an iron-and-cement roof, then baked bricks, marble chips and tiles. Nandita in Mumbai compares a one-room home among huts, where water is filled at a public tap at 4 a.m., with flats in high-rise buildings. In class V, A Shelter so High! describes Tashi's stone house in Ladakh, with thick mud-and-lime walls and a flat roof, and the Changpa of Changthang, who move with their yaks and pashmina goats and live in rebo tents of yak hair, and When the Earth Shook! recalls the Gujarat earthquake of 26 January 2001 and what to do when one strikes.

Houses across regions

Common examples in EVS books and CTET questions are stilt houses of bamboo in Assam and other flood-prone areas, raised above water and away from animals; thick mud walls, small windows and flat roofs in Rajasthan to keep out the heat; sloping roofs of wood or slate in snowy hill areas such as Himachal Pradesh, so that snow and rain slide off; steep sloping roofs in rainy Kerala; houseboats on the Dal Lake in Srinagar; and igloos of snow blocks in the Arctic.

In the classroom

Food and homes touch a child's identity, so a teacher must never rank them: vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, eating with hands or spoons, and kutcha or pucca houses are different, not better or worse. Useful activities are a week's food diary, a survey of cooking fuels used at home, a chart of water sources in the neighbourhood, comparing water from a tap, a pond and a hand pump by look and smell (never taste), and making model houses from local materials while asking why houses in the children's own area are built as they are.

Key facts

Class III What is Cooking: foods eaten raw and cooked; boiling, frying, roasting and steaming; utensils of iron, brass, aluminium, steel and clay.
Class V From Tasting to Digesting: tastes are sweet, salty, sour and bitter; digestion begins in the mouth with saliva; Dr William Beaumont studied digestion through the stomach wound of Alexis St. Martin (shot in 1822).
Class V Mangoes Round the Year: food spoils through fungus and germs; it is kept by sun-drying (mamidi tandra or aam papad) and with salt, sugar or oil (pickles).
Rain is the main source of fresh water; groundwater is drawn through wells, hand pumps and tube wells.
Class V Every Drop Counts: traditional rainwater harvesting - stepwells (baolis), Ghadsisar lake in Jaisalmer (made by King Ghadsi about 650 years ago), kund or tanka in Rajasthan.
Malaria: female Anopheles, stagnant water; Ronald Ross, Secunderabad 1897, Nobel Prize 1902. Dengue: Aedes mosquito, clean stored water in coolers and tyres.
Class V Experiments with Water: floating, sinking and dissolving; the Dead Sea is so salty that people float in it.
Class V A Shelter so High!: the Changpa of Changthang, Ladakh, herd yaks and pashmina goats and live in rebo tents of yak hair.
Houses and climate: stilt houses in Assam (floods), thick mud walls and flat roofs in Rajasthan (heat), sloping roofs in Himachal (snow) and Kerala (heavy rain), houseboats in Srinagar, igloos in the Arctic.
Classroom rule: food habits and houses are different, never better or worse; begin from where the children's own food and water come from.

Quick revision

Food comes from plants and animals, habits differ by region, climate, age and custom; cooking: boiling, frying, roasting, steaming; tastes and saliva; Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin (1822); keeping food by drying, salt, sugar, oil; rain is the main source of fresh water; stepwells, Ghadsisar, kund or tanka; Anopheles malaria, Ross 1897 and 1902; Aedes dengue; Dead Sea; houses differ by climate and materials: stilt (Assam), mud walls (Rajasthan), sloping roofs (Himachal, Kerala), rebo (Changpa).

Practise this topic

All 8 lessons on Environmental Studies (EVS) and its Pedagogy (Paper I)