COIMBATORE: In a corner of the government high school in Sundapalayam, Coimbatore district, is a small asbestos sheet mounted on four wooden poles. A red-sari clad woman, with her hair partially tied, can be seen stirring some food in two large aluminum vessels inside. The smoke from the vessels overpowered the smell of freshly cooked food. She was preparing the mid-day meal for 120 students, stirring the sambar in one vessel and boiling eggs in the other.
This is the condition in which many schools in the state prepare the mid-day meals for students. In the absence of a well-equipped and ventilated kitchen, a large number of schools prepare meals out in the open amidst sand, dust and stones which could very well be mixed with the food on a windy day. With no concrete ground, the cook often places the stirrer on the mud floor before putting it back inside the vessel.
The unhygienic condition in which the food is cooked is just part of the problem. The pittance the student is served is far from adequate to fill their stomachs. Each child in the state is allotted 1.30 on days when sambar rice and dal is served (thrice in two weeks) and 1.80 on days when variety rice is served. "When we serve dal, each child is allotted 0.70 for vegetables, 0.20 for spices and 0.40 for firewood," said Jayamary, a noon meal coordinator at two high schools in West Coimbatore.
"Cooking for 100 children, we allot 100gm of dal per child and 10kg of rice. For this huge quantity of rice the funds allotted for vegetables is a mere 70, for spices it is 20 and firewood 40," she said.
"This is impractical because one tempo load of firewood itself costs 1,500. The vegetables, which include carrot, beans, tomato and potato, would go over budget even if we bought just 1kg each," said a midday meal worker in Vedapatti.
Meanwhile, the government supplied rice, dal and eggs too is shoddy in quality. While the rice and dal is often full of stones, many eggs come broken. "At least five to six of every 100 eggs come broken," said the headmistress of a government school in Perur.
While saying nothing about maintaining a hygienic kitchen, the ministry for food safety has set guidelines which include bans on jewelry and neatly tied hair.
The official in charge of the midday meal scheme in the district collectorate said they have undertaken a plan to construct new kitchens or improvise kitchen rooms in more than 60 schools in the upcoming financial year. "We will ensure that no school functions without a kitchen after 2016," said the officer. "As for increasing funds allotted for the midday meal, we have made the request to both the Centre and the state through many forums," she said.
Unless Anganwadis meet hygiene standards food should be cooked from a central kitchen and served.
ReplyDelete