Incidents of health problems after taking mid-day meals in different schools of the country have been coming to notice ever since the project was launched. Seeing the huge size of the programme, incidents here and there did not cause any big fire in the pan. Similarly reports about corruption in this ambitious project have also been occasionally trickling down. The Govt is providing mid-day meal daily to 10 crore students in 13 lakh schools of the country and spends Rs10,000/- crore annually. The idea was to give this incentive to attract more and more students and compensate food deficiency in these students belonging to weaker sections. It is a fact that attendance in schools increased all over the country. But this cannot make the country happy if the beneficiary students start dying in large numbers.
What happened a couple of days back in a school of Chapra in Bihar has surprised the whole country. After taking the poisonous food, the students immediately fell ill. 22 of them died and several others were rushed to hospitals in Chapra and Patna. In the local hospital there was no doctor and no medicine was available. Strangely enough, even in the PMCH, there was no doctor. Only nurses were available. For dips no water was available. One of the victim parents complained that two patients were sharing a single dip bottle. Some of the ill children died on the way and some succumbed in the hospital for lack of qualified doctors and required medicines. It is a fact that in these rural schools no sons of ministers and bureaucrats study. They are all wards of the poor farmers and daily wagers. Their hope of getting their children educated so that they could have a better future, was instantly dashed to dust. Some families lost their all kids. Who is responsible for this catastrophe?
The principal’s husband supplied cereals to the school. It is reported that in place of edible oil, some pesticide was used. When the cook complained to the principal about the strange colour and smell of the food, the principal just did not take notice of. The education minister claimed that the ill children were getting the best possible treatment. But he had no moral guts to personally visit the area where he repeatedly wandered only three months back for vote in the parliamentary bi-election from Maharajganj on JDU ticket which he lost badly. Even the popular and secular Chief Minister hid somewhere under the plea that he was having pain in his leg. Lalu Yadav (RJD), R.V Paswan(LNJP), Ashwani Chaubey(BJP) and several other leaders expressed sympathy and flayed at the CM. Of course for obvious reason, the Congress, which had earlier pulled up the Bihar NDA govt, is this time very soft to Nitish. The dichotomy still persists as the Centre claims to have warned Bihar in advance and a senior bureaucrat flatly denies such an alert.
Without prior arrangements, launching such a big programme is a crime. Hardly any school is having a kitchen. The food is cooked and stored in the open and so we get news about flies, lizards, rats and even snakes found in several mid-day meal. Moreover, the teachers who have to collect food items, have no time for academic work. The cook is any poor women engaged on a pltry sum. The strongarm neighbours force the school authoritie to feed their non-school going children and servants also. Often chaos prevails when somebody does not get his share. The people, including the teachers involved in this programme also try to make money. This is so when the Govt pays only Rs 3 + some paise per student. One can just imagine the state of affairs. We go a step further. Despite this food, kitchen runs in the families of parents which brings wastage of fuel.
In this backdrop, it is reasonable to stop forthwith this programme and give attendance-based payment to each student. This will immediately end the mal-practices at every level in this well intentioned programme. Simultaneously there will be no complaint about any unhygienic food.
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