The West Singhbhum administration in Jharkhand is investigating whether the district’s schoolchildren like their midday meals, prepared without onions, garlic or eggs by an ISKCON-linked organisation.
The probe was ordered after a survey report, released on Friday evening by an NGO that campaigns for food security, claimed that schoolchildren were fed up with the midday meals cooked at the centralised kitchen of the Annamrita Foundation.
The survey reported instances of children throwing the food away or leaving large portions untouched on their plates. An activist said schoolchildren had described the food as "tasteless".
The Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch carried out the survey in the Chaibasa Sadar, Jhinkpani, Khuntpani and Tantnagar blocks of West Singhbhum.
“We have formed a probe team led by additional deputy collector Santosh Sinha and assisted by food safety officers of the district,” West Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ananya Mittal said.
The team will probe whether “the students really like the midday meals or not and if the situation is as adverse as mentioned in the survey”, Mittal said. “The team will submit its report in a fortnight and we will take action based on it.”
The Jharkhand Education Project Council — a state government body that monitors the implementation of central schemes relating to school education — is yet to receive the survey report, JEPC project director Kiran Passi said.
“However, we will talk to the deputy commissioner of the district concerned on the exact situation of the midday meals. If the situation demands, we will take corrective measures,” Passi said.
Passi added that the Annamrita Foundation’s centralised kitchen service had begun as a pilot project in East Singhbhum district in 2012 and was extended to the West Singhbhum and Lohardaga districts earlier this year. The objective was to provide hygienic, hot meals to the children.
However, the Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch says the concept has been a “big flop”.
“Jharkhand had introduced the centralised kitchen scheme in January this year to replace the earlier scheme under which the midday meals were prepared in kitchens within school premises,” the NGO said in a statement.
“Students and teachers in over 90 per cent of the 42 schools surveyed in 23 villages told the survey that the midday meals cooked (on) the school premises were better than the food supplied by vans from the centralised kitchen.”
Teachers in over 90 per cent of the schools too told the survey that the children ate better when the food was cooked at the school kitchens, the Manch said.
“Children and teachers have both said the food from the centralised kitchen is tasteless,” Jayanti Melgandi, an activist with the Manch in Chaibasa, said.
“We have urged authorities to restore the old system in which the meals are cooked at the schools.”
An executive with the Annamrita Foundation said the centralised kitchens provide “piping hot meals that exceed prescribed standards for protein and carbohydrate” content, and that the absence ofonions, garlic and eggs has not been an issue with schools elsewhere.
“We feed over 12 lakh children across the country daily — our meals haven’t had onions, garlic or eggs since inception in 2004 (when Annamrita began supplying midday meals),” Durgesh Chingle said.
“Our meals have more than the prescribed 12 grams protein and 300 calories.”
Chingle said the Annamrita Foundation was earlier called the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation but was renamed because it did not want to be linked to any particular religion.
Annamrita supplies midday meals to schools in Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tripura, he added.
Chingle said the meals lack onions, garlic or eggs because the institution does not provide what its own members do not eat. He added that Lord Krishna does not approve of onions and garlic.
The Manch said the centralised kitchen was hurting livelihoods by stopping local procurement. Earlier, the schools bought seasonal vegetables from local farmers or markets to cook the midday meals.
