The news that eggs will soon be out of the platter of mid-day meal served to children in Government-run schools has sparked a heated debate.
The Government decision to divest the self-help groups of the responsibility of cooking the mid-day meal in schools and replace them with the Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO run by the International Sri Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), resulted in a change in the menu in several schools across the State, including in Krishna district.
Under the noon meal scheme which aims to enhance enrolment of children, retention and increased attendance and also to improve nutritional levels, egg was served twice a week. But members of ISKCON, in tune with their belief system and food practice, don’t use egg or even onion and garlic.
“Students in the Government-run schools are generally from the rural background and they may find such food ‘unpalatable’. Moreover, we are a secular nation; why should religious sensitivities of a vegetarian section of society be allowed to decide what should go on into the platter of school kids, a good number of them mal-nourished at that,” says P. Babu Reddy, chairman of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Organisation (FAPTO).
The new dispensation is already in place in many schools across the State. In Guntur district, a mechanised kitchen of the Akshaya Patra Foundation set up at Thullur serves mid-day meals to schools in Thullur, Venkatayapalem and Mangalagiri. “The SHGs were out and the NGO stepped into the food-supplier’s shoes in July this year. Unlike in the past when vegetarian children were served banana whenever egg was served to others, now egg is completely off the noon meal scheme and banana is served to everybody,” says K. Chandrasekhar, a teacher in a mandal parishad upper primary school in Thullur.
Headmasters of a couple of schools say parents are concerned and a few of them even alleged that the move is a way of institutionalising vegetarianism. They were happy that the Government was providing to their children the dose of nutrients that they could not afford.
“Eggs are the ideal protein to fight undernourishment. Protein builds muscle, increases height and balances hormones in growing children. Banana cannot be a substitute for egg which is high in protein content,” says Hema Devi Doddapaneni, consultant dietician and president of the Vijayawada Dietic Association.
In Krishna district, the new menu is likely to be implemented in a month or two. When asked about it, the District Education Officer A. Subba Reddy said there was a proposal but he had not received any official confirmation so far.
