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Mid-day meal scheme

Kashmir Times. Dated: 4/19/2017 10:36:44 AM

Dear Editor,
It refers to nine school-children of Deoli (Delhi) having rushed to hospital on 16.02.2017 after they fell ill because of a dead rat found in mid-day meal consumed by them. Such and similar incidents of kids falling ill after taking fresh cooked mid-day meal in schools are not new. Complaints about insects, frogs, lizards, rats and even snakes etc. in mid-day mail funded by government as world’s largest school-lunch programme daily to about 12 crores school-children have become quite common.
There are frequent reports of sub-standard raw-material like rice and pulses with lot of foreign ingredients being used to cook mid-day meal in schools. Only packaged food within expiry-date as mentioned on packs should be served in schools to ensure hygiene. It will also take care of peculiar food-habits of some children like food without onion and garlic. Members of Civil-Society have expressed fear that accepting suggestion to provide packaged biscuits procured from private companies in Mid-Day meal-scheme may be on behest of influential private sector lobby. But in case such food comes from a sponsored programme from corporate sector, then there is no harm in accepting the offer to save largely on mid-deal mean programme for school-children.
Best will be to revive government-owned Modern Bakery with its units set up at district levels where different types of delicious and nutritious baked food-items may be produced not only for Mid-Day meal scheme but also for open market sale. Initial investment on such units can be easily recovered in the very first year of their being set up with land made available to these public-sector units by state-governments at a nominal price in larger public interest. It will create employment-opportunity also for people across the country. Or else scope of Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) should be increased for supplying packaged food for mid-day school-meal.
—Madhu Agrawal,
1775 Kucha Lattushah Dariba Delhi.