By Sameet Panda
A recent article published in the national daily The Hindu on children not being happy with mid-day meal sans onion and garlic served by the Akshaya Patra Foundation has sparked a huge debate in the country.
Akshaya Patra, which supplies mid-day meals to around 1.76 million children in 15,024 government schools across 12 states in the country, is an initiative of the religious group International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). It claims to follow ISKCON’s principles of vegetarianism in its cooking and strictly avoids meat, fish and eggs. It also avoids use of onion and garlic in the preparation of food.
This has often been a point of conflict between the foundation and state governments, with the foundation sometimes refusing to follow state government directives to provide eggs in the meal.
The Hindu’s article reignited the old controversy but it became huge after many right wing organisations and well known personalities like journalist Shekhar Gupta, business tycoon T.V. Mohandas Pai and BJP MP Tejaswi Surya jumped in to the fray to defend Akshaya Patra. Their argument was that the noble work done by the organisation in supplying safe and hygienic meals to the children needed to be acknowledged and the controversy was uncalled for.
This did not find resonance among the food and child rights activists who are demanding that the foundation adhere to government norms.
The debate has mostly become pro- and anti-Akshaya Patra.
However, it is essential to remember that the primary objective of mid-day meal (MDM) programme is to end class room hunger and reduce malnutrition among children. Therefore, it is important to keep rights of the children at the centre of the discussion and not the foundation.
India is home to more than a half of the malnourished children in the world. According to the recent National Family Health Survey, 35.7 per cent children under five in the country are underweight and 38.4 per cent stunted. Therefore, there is a huge stake on the MDM programme in the reduction of malnutrition, which caters to the children between six and 14 years.
Class room hunger is a big issue in our country and according to estimates of the Union human resource development ministry even in a prosperous state like Punjab more than 40 per cent of the children go to school on an empty stomach. This is mostly the case in government and government aided schools.
These schools cater to more than 10 crore children mostly coming from poor socio-economic backgrounds. The mid-day meal served in the school is essentially the first meal for the children. For many it is also the only wholesome meal that they get during the day. Therefore it is very essential that the meals served to the children are nutritious and palatable.
The menu for MDM has been decided after lot of deliberation taking in to consideration nutrition requirement and food taste of the children from a particular region. All states have their own standard prescribed menu. Since protein deficiency malnutrition is the major form of malnutrition in the country, nutritionist and public health specialist are harping for making the meals protein rich.
As egg is considered as the best form of protein, which is cheap and with less possibility of adulteration, state governments are increasingly opting for inclusion of egg in their menu. At least 14 states are already providing eggs as part of the noon meal.
The refusal of any government MDM supplier to serve eggs or food preparation contrary to tastes of the children is both morally and legally wrong. It violates children’s right to food. And the government is duty bound to safeguard rights of the children.
There is another argument that even though Akshaya Patra does not serve egg or onion-garlic in its meal, it is prepared in a hygienic way and adheres to the nutrition requirement prescribed by the government.
This gives rise to two issues that needs to be seen carefully.
First, whoever serves meal in school – whether school teachers, small women SHG or a big foundation – they have to abide by the food safety standard guidelines, which are non-negotiable. It is the role of the government to get the food tested at a regular basis and take necessary action to protect health and wellbeing of the children.
Secondly, the food must be palatable for the children. It is the children for whom the meal is prepared. Therefore, it must be the utmost priority of any supplier to prepare meals taking taste of the children in to consideration.
It has been reported by Karnataka State Food Commission and has even been admitted by the officer responsible for administration for management of MDM in Odisha that food supplied by Akshaya Patra is very bland as it doesn’t include onion and garlic.
Onion and garlic are essential condiments for food preparation in most parts of India. School going children do not like the bland meals and have either completely stopped taking MDM or are eating less. It shows that by not respecting the food taste of the children and forcing a particular type of food preparation on them is defeating the primary motive of the MDM programme. If children do not like the food preparation and are eating less, it is not going to reduce malnutrition among them.
Akshaya Patra is guilty of keeping the children hungry and unsatisfied. And the state governments are complicit in this crime by violating its primary duty of ensuring that children are well fed by giving in to the whims and fancies of a contractor, which must prepare food that is culturally appropriate for the children.
Keeping in mind the objective of the MDM programme and rights of the children, the government must take steps to ensure that MDM is served as per the standard menu. The taste and nutrition need of the children must not be compromised for some organisation’s belief system.
The government should take steps to ensure that organisations like Akshaya Patra adhere to its norms and make alternative arrangements. Governments should not take excuse of logistics problem in managing school meals after disengaging the defiant organisations as it only caters to two per cent school children in the country.
Women SHGs can easily be co-opted to run MDM as they are already effectively rendering the service in many states. The government is legally and morally duty bound to protect the rights of children and must ensure they are well fed and nourished.
(Sameet Panda is a development worker working on the issues of food and nutrition)
