Few States can boast of success in keeping the snouts of venal politicians, bureaucrats and others out of the trough. If that reveals greed, it also reflects poorly on our nation which doesn’t care enough for its children
Nothing can be more hideous than little children, some as young as four years old, dropping dead after eating a meal which is their sole motivation for attending school. The 23 children from poor families who died after their mid-day meal, meant to bolster their nutrition intake, at a Government-run school in Bihar’s Saran district, were innocent victims of greed, corruption and apathy. Their tragic deaths are likely to discourage parents from enrolling their children in school; those children who saw their friends dying a horrible death are unlikely to look forward to going to school in the hope of a hot meal.
Official inquiries take their own time and bureaucrats have mastered the art of sidestepping responsibility while helping their political masters to escape accountability. Hence, the Bihar Government’s inquiry into the horrific incident is unlikely to yield anything that can be pinned on either Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the born again messiah of secularism, or any other Minister in the Government he heads. We can also be rest assured that bureaucrats will escape retribution for their gross failure in monitoring the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme. We will hear pious platitudes and promises of cleaning up the mess that prevails.
Public memory being notoriously short, the tragedy will be forgotten as media moves on to another outrage-generating story, either real or manufactured, to keep pace with the 24-hour news cycle. The ersatz grief and anger of television anchors who have turned their shows into burlesques meant to titillate the perverse imagination of the lowest common denominator among the chattering classes will be redirected. In this land of ours never does a day pass without offering media an opportunity to showcase yet another tamasha.
The standard response to questions about what the Government proposes to do about punishing the criminals guilty of snuffing out 23 lives will be “the law shall take its own course and none shall be spared”. The law in this benighted land is an ass; those who indulge in willing suspension of disbelief to believe such bunk are asses too. It’s only a matter of time before the principal of the school, Meena Devi, who had stored cooking oil in an empty canister of pesticides and sternly instructed the cook not to complain about the colour and odour of the oil, returns home from wherever she is hiding. Once the dust settles, she will be back plying her trade, protected by the JD(U) which, it is believed, has been patronising her. Nothing else explains how an evil, Borgiaisque woman like her came to head a school.
It’s a pity questions shall never be asked nor Nitish Kumar be forced to answer them — either by the media or the chattering classes. The poor parents who lost their children will curse their kismet. That, however, does not mean questions should not be asked. Indeed, answers must be demanded for the many lapses that have come to define the so-called ‘Bihar Model’ of development, a model that beggars the masses and leaves the most vulnerable — children —at the not so tender mercies of corrupt public servants.
For instance, we must demand an explanation as to why the Bihar Government sat on Rs 500 crore, meant to modernise school kitchens and buy new utensils for the mid-day meal scheme, without spending the money. This Central allocation was returned unused after skimming interest off the money by parking it in a bank. Pretending ignorance is not good enough; a Chief Minister is accountable for such stunning lapses and responsible for its consequences.
It would, however, be incorrect to suggest, even if ever so remotely, that Bihar alone is afflicted with the malaise of ill-implemented welfare programmes. Barring those States which have embraced the Akshayapatra scheme to implement the mid-day meal programme, few if any can boast of success in keeping the snouts of venal politicians, bureaucrats, contractors, teachers, jholawallahs of fly-by-night NGOs and the pimps who facilitate deals among this despicable lot out of the trough. If that reflects greed and corruption (one feeds on the other) across the country, it also reflects the true face of our society.
As a nation we are not overtly mindful about protecting and nourishing our children who shall inherit this country from us. And, since children do not vote, they do not exist for political parties, although children under six years comprise nearly a fifth of the population.
This point is amplified by statistical data collated during the Third National Family Health Survey conducted over 2005-06. For instance two-fifths of our children are malnourished, which roughly translates into more than 16 crore malnourished children, many of whom may not make it through infancy. As many as more than a third of our children suffer from stunted growth and three quarters of them are anaemic. A whopping 50 per cent are not fully immunised.
In Uttar Pradesh, which the Samajwadi Party propagandists do not tire of describing as ‘Uttam Pradesh’, Government funded panjiri, a ready-to-eat high calorie mix meant for mid-day meals at schools, is fed to cattle under the malign gaze of corrupt officials. Such was the clout of the ‘panjiri mafia’ in Uttar Pradesh that the mid-day meal programme is in a shambles in half the districts of the State. It stands to reason that malnutrition among children in these districts should be as high as 50 to 70 per cent.
The Supreme Court, in a judgement, had sought to enforce the mid-day meal scheme across the country. But that’s easier said than done. An internal memo of the Union Government, while admitting 30 years too late that the Integrated Child Development Scheme has failed, says, “The prevalence of child malnutrition in India is among the highest in the world.” A recent Comptroller and Auditor-General report further underscores the abysmal failure of the mid-day meal scheme.
Meanwhile, to grab news space while the Bihar tragedy was unfolding, the Congress-led UPA regime let it be known that from now it would be serious about implementing the mid-day meal scheme. We could even see Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her courtiers in the National Advisory Council pushing for a Right to Mid-day Meal Bill. A criminally callous political leadership can only make a mockery of hunger and poverty. An indifferent people deserve no better.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi)