The taste of mid-day meal
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 24 , 2013 -

The front page photograph of Education Minister Moirangthem Okendro Singh, who is also in charge of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, sharing mid-day meal along with school children, which was carried in most newspapers published from Imphal on Tuesday (July 23), has attracted a lot of attention, for some obvious reasons.

Conducting a surprise visit to some of the schools in Imphal West District to personally check the quality of the food given to students of Primary and Upper Primary Schools under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme and see for himself how the scheme is being implemented in Manipur, Minister Okendro ate the food along with the students in at least two schools.

Understandably, the surprise visit was conducted in the wake of a series of distressing reports that have come in of children dying or falling sick after eating the mid-day meal served to them at schools in different parts of the country over the last couple of weeks, with the most heartrending tragedy taking place in Bihar, where at least 23 school children of a Government school died from food poisoning.

So, one can either scoffed at the gesture of Minister Okendro as a political gimmick or hailed as a genuine concern for the welfare of the students in Manipur.

Either way, there are valid points for argument.

While the inspection visit to check the quality of the food provided under Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Manipur has been conducted for the first time ever by a Minister concerned, which is appreciable; we might also question why the inspection has been done only this time and where was the Minister when National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought report from the State Government on the irregularities of implementing the scheme in Manipur.

Commonly known as Mid-day Meal Scheme, the 'National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education' was launched on August 15, 1995 on a nation-wide scale by the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry Human Resource Department, Government of India on August 15, 1995 with the main objective of protecting students from class room hunger and improving their enrolment and attendance in Government schools.

However, the scheme, which was implemented in Manipur with effect from November, 1995, has always ran into trouble with allegations of rice and other food items allotted being sold in black market by the school authorities in connivance with some unscrupulous Government officials, on one hand; and lack of necessary infrastructure and manpower crippling effective implementation of the scheme, on the other hand.

Failure on the part of the Government to provide the required food grain and the fund in time has also been another recurring cause of concern undermining the importance of the scheme in Manipur.

So, it would be fatalistic to jump to the conclusion that the scheme is being implemented in the State properly just by conducting a surprise field visit one fine day in some select schools of Imphal West or by flipping through the records maintained in the official files.

Even if, it would be impossible for him to make similar inspection visits in all the schools, the Minister should not overlook the fact that in far flung areas, where there are no proper school buildings or adequate teachers, Mid-Day Meal Scheme is something that students do not even heard throughout their formative schooling, though there may be expenditure brochures and official records showing implementation of the scheme in such schools.

Thus, the simplest way to know find out the status of Mid-Day Meal scheme is to question the children how many times do they get to eat meal at school in a week.

Anyway, whether it is a political gimmick or not, one thing that is really laundable on the part of Education Minister is that, while debates are doing the round in other parts of the country on whether the headmasters/teachers should be made to taste the food before being given to the students, he has went ahead leaving behind everyone by sharing the mid-day meal along with the students.

Can we expect any other MLAs and Ministers who are sitting on top of their ivory towers after being elected to do the same?