2 years after Bihar tragedy, schools still flout midday meal rules: Study

The study found most children come to school on an empty stomach.

Nearly two years after the midday meal tragedy at a Bihar school where more than 20 children died after eating pesticidelaced lunch, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of the scheme's implementation has revealed that food safety norms are still not followed in schools serving the noon meal.

There are no systems for buying and storing of raw material, those responsible for buying raw ingredients have no knowledge of quality parameters and possibilities of contamination still loom large.

That apart, the recent report also points out how most children come to school on an empty stomach and nearly 60 per cent suffered nutritional deficiencies.

The findings have emerged after a year-long project on a 'Comprehensive Investigation and Intervention in Mid-Day Meals' in two blocks of Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

Commissioned by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development for creating templates for systemic improvements of the Midday Meal Scheme, the project was carried out by the Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute (SSMI), a Delhi-based non-profit institution.

The report emphasises the need for reinventing the midday meal according to local needs and ground realities, and calls for greater sympathy for the cookcum-helpers who prepare the meals in less than satisfactory conditions.

"If during the study in Faizabad, it is noticed that a large number of children are coming hungry, it is just common sense that a hungry child cannot pay attention to what is being taught, obviously the relationship between hungernutrition and cognition needs to be investigated..." writes K. Ashok Ram, SSMI general secretary, in the report.

The study has recommended that the midday meal scheme be split so that there are two components to the meal - a snack as soon as the child comes to school followed by the full-fledged meal.

They have also recommended health checks and better remuneration for cooks, nutrition surveys on eating habits of children over a 24-hour cycle and rapid food safety surveys and overall, more investment in food safety. That apart, it has recommended smokeless chulhas and kitchens with separated cooking, washing and storage area.

Interestingly, this report also indicates that a hot cooked meal made at the school was better than the kind delivered and served in some areas by a centralised kitchen.

The December 2014 report was recently submitted to the HRD ministry.