Govt working to make midday meals safer

The Centre has asked Karnataka to ensure foolproof monitoring of the midday meal scheme even as 156 children across the state took ill last year due to unhygienic food or negligence while serving it.

With the number of children falling sick after consuming meals or getting hurt while having food on an upward trend, the government is working on a standard quality assurance process.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) found that steering-cum-monitoring committees had not met even once in 11 districts - Shivamogga, Ramanagara, Mysuru, Mandya, Chikkamagaluru, Uttar Kannada, Belagavi, Chikkodi, Kalaburagi, Raichur and Yadgir. The committees, headed by deputy commissioners, are required to meet every month to oversee the implementation of the flagship scheme.

During the annual plan approval board review last month, the state informed the MHRD that there was a delay in construction of kitchen-cum-stores (sheds), which help provide safe storage of food, hygienic cooking and hand washing. The government cited “scarcity of sand” as one of the reason for the delay.

MHRD also asked the state to address another serious gap - only 21% government schools have water purifiers.

In 2017, seven incidents were reported where 156 schoolchildren fell sick or got hurt. In one incident, 15 schoolchildren in Danaganahalli, Sirsi started vomiting because pieces of a lizard were found in the sambar. In another incident, 40 schoolchildren in Antur Bentur, Gadag got sick after eating upma that had worms because the semolina was not cleaned. “In the last one year, we’ve been in the process of developing a system of periodic sampling and testing. We’re trying to be proactive than reactive,” Commissioner for Public Instruction P C Jaffer told DH. “The challenge is, testing cooked food and raw materials are two different things. Cooked food should be tested within 24 hours of drawing the sample and it’s a big challenge to get testing facilities in regional areas.”

At schools, meals are first tasted by teachers or parents before being served to children. The government is in talks with a lab in Hyderabad to test food in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. “Our idea is to come out with a standard quality assurance process. We’re also in the process of talking to other departments and universities to see if they can set up testing facilities.” Karnataka remains a bellwether state with 93% schoolchildren covered under the scheme against the national average of 76%.