JOIN USAt least 22 children have died and over a dozen are battling for their lives in the worst-ever incident of alleged food poisoning as they consumed free mid-day meal (MDM) at a school near Chhapra in Bihar.
This has sent shockwaves across the country and brought into sharp focus the way in which the scheme is implemented in different states with least adherence to its guidelines. The deaths have set off violence besides unseemly exchange of words among the political parties. The ruling Janata Dal (United) has even alleged conspiracy behind the incident to destabilise the state government.
The popular scheme, unveiled with avowed objectives of protecting children from hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, is the largest school-feeding programme in the world covering a staggering 11 crore children across the country. A major complaint has been that most of the 12 lakh schools coming under the programme have make shift kitchens with little attention paid to hygiene. There have been frequent reports of scams and children falling ill because of poor quality of food from several states, but no tragedy of the magnitude that happened on Tuesday.
When 86 students fell ill apparently owing to food poisoning in Goa some time ago, the state’s chief minister Manohar Parrikar himself remarked that the food served under MDM scheme was unfit even for animals to consume. A team of professors of IIM, Ahmedabad, after their study of the scheme in several states, reported on compromises being made on several aspects, as they were “aghast to find workers placing their bare feet on the part-open lids of the cooked food…The kitchen was full of flies…worms were found in rice.”
In the latest incident, reports have said the unfortunate students collapsed after consuming rice with soyabean potato curry cooked in bad, poisonous oil, while others claimed that the food had traces of phosphorous pesticide.
While the final toxicology report is yet to come in, it is clear that the Chhapra school did not comply with the guidelines of the MDM scheme which stipulate that food should be tasted by three adults including one teacher and that oil once used should be discarded. This could be the story across the country too. There is a need for review of the safety and hygiene aspects of the programme and the Centre should not lose time in taking corrective measures.