Learning right lessons from Bihar midday meal tragedy

A large chunk of schools in State get food prepared outside their premises

The midday meal tragedy in Bihar, which claimed 23 lives, has made the State authorities sit up and take notice. The authorities have announced greater vigilance so far as midday meals provided to schoolchildren are concerned.  

In as many as 18 out of the 34 education districts, a majority of schools have their food ‘provided, but not prepared on the school premises,’ show the latest District Information System of Education (DISE) statistics compiled by the National University of Educational Planning and Research (NUEPA).

“All departments concerned have been instructed to look into the matter seriously and take essential responsibility. The education department is in the process of preparing instructions that will be given out to all schools,” said S Jayakumar, Joint Director of Public Instruction (JDPI).   

On July 19, a meeting of all departments, including anganwadis and social welfare, was held, where a number of instructions were given for better implementation of the midday scheme, Jayakumar said.

In Bagalkot for example, as many as 994 schools that provide midday meals do not prepare the food within their school premises, whereas 643 schools do so. In Bangalore North, a staggering 1,177 schools get their meals prepared from outside the school premises, whereas only 422 schools cook them within the school.

In other districts like Dakshina Kannada and Kolar, however, the opposite seems to be true. In the former, while 1,055 schools prepare their meals inside the school premises, only 404 schools get it from outside. In the latter, 1,953 schools get their meals prepared inside the school, whereas only 155 schools get it from outside. In Hassan, it is 2,803 and 236 schools, respectively.

“Around 2,200 schools come under ‘tagged schools’. They receive the midday meals jointly with a nearby school where it is prepared. As many as 93 NGOs also provide food from outside to around 5,790 schools. These schools understandably don’t have kitchen sheds,” said Jayakumar.

Kitchen sheds

Between 2007 and 2010, construction of as many as 27,847 kitchen sheds was sanctioned. A plan for an additional 8,724 kitchen sheds was sanctioned in 2011-12. Out of all these, 25,142 are presently completed and 7,037 are still under construction. 

These figures are further validated by the DISE data that shows a good percentage of kitchen sheds in a number of districts. For example, in Chitradurga, there are 1,907 schools that have kitchen sheds. Similar is the case in Mandya, where there are 2,015 schools with kitchen sheds.