Mid-Day Meal Scheme for kids : More than filling hungry stomachs
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 22, 2013 -

Mid-day meal scheme.

If memory serves us right, when it was first introduced in Tamil Nadu sometime in the 1980s under the personal initiative of the hugely charismatic and late Chief Minister, MGR, the mainstream media and the critics by and large dismissed it as a populist measure with an eye on building a vote bank.

The real motive of the late MGR will perhaps be never known and it does not matter anymore today, but the fact of the matter is, this model has been adopted across the country in every State.

The necessity of adopting such a measure is also a reflection of how impoverished a large section of the people are. Convincing parents that in sending their children to school, their wards will not only be getting education but also a free meal.

A measure adopted much before India came up with the idea of the Right to Education Act. In a sense a far sighted measure.

Now in the wake of the Bihar tragedy in which at least 23 children have died due to food poisoning in their mid day meal, a man made tragedy, as per the latest result from the forensic test, it is time to study why the Babus entrusted with the task of looking after or managing the mid-day meal scheme failed to look beyond merely filling the stomach of the children.

Keeping the children well fed comes with the understanding of providing them nutritious food. Something much more than merely filling their stomach and keeping hunger at bay.

It is this understanding which does not seem to have registered in the consciousness of the men and women looking after the mid-day meal scheme in Bihar.

Pesticides in their food is the finding, as per the forensic test and if this is going to be the yardstick of feeding children, then the kids may be given anything to eat to fight off their hunger. It was human error no doubt, but the scale of the error and the toll it has taken on human lives, children in this case is alarming and frightening.

The warning bell should not go unheard.

Today it is Bihar and tomorrow it could be any other State, including Manipur and this where the question of whether the guidelines issued by the State Government to prepare the mid day meals for the children are strictly adhered to or have been consigned amongst the piles of dusty files.

As far as the understanding of The Sangai Express goes, a cook should be appointed for each school which have been designated to provide mid day meals.

How far this has been followed is something that needs confirmation. Hygiene is another aspect that has been stressed.

While some schools do have their kitchens where the meals are prepared, others actually do not have kitchens, with the cooks preparing the meal at their homes.

Nothing drastically wrong with this, but already a violation of the guidelines can be discerned here.

During many of the rounds done by the field reporters of The Sangai Express, there was nothing much to write home about the cleanliness and hygienic conditions of the kitchens run at the schools.

Dirty utensils crowding the kitchens were a more regular sight than clean and sparkling utensils.

The raw material, the food, as The Sangai Express is made to understand, is supplied by the Food Corporation of India and most likely distributed to the schools through the offices of the Zonal Educational Officers.

A well set up supply and distribution system seems to have been put in place and this is welcome. But this should be no reason to go lax and ignore the warning bell sounded from Bihar.

Apart from attracting children to come to school with the promise of a free lunch, it should also be understood that the free lunch is more than just filling up the stomach of the young children but also providing them nutritious food.

Educated and healthy children is the philosophy that drives the mid-day meal scheme. Let not this point be forgotten.